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Aaaaactually, not. The New Zealand Mint is just the legal name of a company that makes bullion coins. Sometimes, they do so under the authority of a government, but they are not in fact contracted to provide minting services to any government nor are they owned by a government. For New Zealand, the actual government mint is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and government issue commemorative currency is issued by New Zealand Post.

I wrote:

Give it up. This wasn't that type of bank -

Poster replied:

I wasn't what type of bank? The type of bank that handles large sums of other peoples' money?

I wrote:

which you would have known if you had read the article.

I read the article, and I just looked at it again. I still don't see what you mean.

No, it doesn't handle "other people's" money. You can't open an account there. Its the central bank for New Zealand http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/

The opening phrase of the article: " A man who accessed the Reserve Bank's telephone systems" should have been sufficient. Like the Federal Reserve in the US, it sets monetary policy, etc., but you can't apply there for a car loan or a mortgage.

People should be trying to break into these security systems every day, and they should be failing most of the time. I would be much more trusting of a bank that encourages anyone to test their information security than one that tries to hide their security flaws using the legal system.

When it comes to information systems, it's much like cryptography. Do you trust the algorithms that have been attacked countless times and found to be secure, or the algorithms that have never been attacked?

So by the same logic we should encourage the local mob to send a couple of boys around to break a few of your bones or smashing a few windows, testing your "personal security" and "need for protection". After all, its "okay" to attack unprotected systems, even if its illegal ...

The guy should have been sent to jail, just like anyone else who tries to run any sort of "protection racket" ... which is what this guy was doing, the implied threat being "I could leak this information."

Actually, it's a bit more serious than that. The bank http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/ who's phone system he compromised is an approximate functional equivilant of the US Federal Reserve http://www.federalreserve.gov/ (but quite a bit smaller).

He's very lucky he did it in NZ where it appears that the courts consider him stupid rather than malicious. In other countries he might get charged with terrorism related offenses or worse.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is not a bank, as such. It's not like you waltz down to the Reserve Bank to make a deposit of your weekly wage cheque.

I believe it's more like the Federal Reserve in the States, though the RBNZ is 100% government owned.

So basically this guy decided to do some "security analysis" of a governmental body, not some penny-ante savings & loan branch in the backwoods. So yes, the police are going to be on to it pretty damn quick.

IANAL, but nope. As far as I'm aware, taking something to the register is an offer to buy from the retailer, no contract has been formed at this point and hence, no debt. It is, technically, an invitation to treat. Since you're only offering to buy from the retailer, the retailer can reject your offer no matter what currency you have.

Legal Tender, which only deals with physical cash anyway, deals with debt situations. (In a retail situation, the two common examples where legal tender makes a difference is paying for gas after pumping and settiling a resturant account after the meal.)

As an aside, it's perfectly legitmate to work in other currencies, both real (e.g., legal tender in other jurisdictions) and made up (e.g., empty beer bottles) so long as both parties agree - there was a case in New Zealand along those lines, where the Reserve Bank said "Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Murray Sherwin said: "These so-called Chatham Island dollars are harmless as a promotional gimmick and as a bit of fun. Also, if people want to use them to undertake transactions, that's fine too, just as one can pay for a service with monopoly play money, sea shells, or bottles of beer, if the seller is happy to receive them."

"Countries with low value coins generally have state and local consumption taxes which are added to the advertised prices of goods and services. Consequently, almost every cash transaction requires the exchange of very low denomination coins. In New Zealand, GST is almost always incorporated in the displayed price of products. Also, the use of electronic methods of making payments is more common in New Zealand than in most other countries.

Low denomination coins are unpopular in several developed countries. Finland has chosen not to issue 1 and 2 eurocent coins. Major retail organisations, banks and consumer organisations in the Netherlands have voluntarily agreed that all pricing should be in 5 eurocent intervals. A recent survey in the United Kingdom indicated that about 5 million people there regularly throw away low value coins. If Europe and the UK opted for lowest value coins of five eurocents and five pennies respectively these would be of similar value to a New Zealand 10 cent coin."

Europeans also have MUCH higher tax rates, higher unemployment, and lower economic growth rates.

I can't speak for Europe, but I can speak for New Zealand. New Zealand has Universal Healthcare (as well as a parallel private system if you're willing to pay), long unemployment benefits, and many of the other features attributed to western european countries.

New Zealand has an unemployment rate of 3.6% which is very respectable, and a decent economic growth rate.

And as for taxes - I can give a good comparison there: For a time I was working in New Zealand and my brother was working in the US. We were earning the same salary in local currency. After tax (including social security payments, state taxes, and all the rest) I had more cash in hand than my rother. In practical terms New Zealand had a lower tax rate than the US.

New Zealand is far from perfect (it has many problems in fact), but it is an example that universal healthcare and unemplyment benefits needn't result in Europe's tax, unemployment and growth rates.

Please note that I am neither advocating for or against either the US or European style of doing things here, merely pointing out that your correlation doesn't always hold up.

Jedidiah.

Because lord knows Australians have enough difficulty coming up with creative slang as it is... Have you ever actually heard real hard core Aussie slang (as ooposed to Hollywood interpretations on Aussie slang)? Trust me, practically nothing presents a problem with regard to creating good sounding slang in Australia.

As a side note, we have similar notes in NZ, again in different sizes and colours (though less garish colour combinations than Australia).The 5 dollar note for instance is mostly just red and orange. Once you get used to it this system is remarkably superior. Certainly the polymer notes are a brilliant idea.

Jedidiah

Made from plastic, but designed to feel like paper, they are practically unforgable. They have transparent windows, water marks, textured areas, the whole shibang. If you ever manage to get hold of one, you'll realise just how impossible a task making a replica would be.

Just from the link above, here's the security features of our notes (all of which I think are rather cool):

1. Each polymer note has two transparent windows. One of the transparent windows is oval-shaped and sloping and has the denomination numerals embossed in it. The other clear window is in the shape of a curved fern leaf.
2. There is a fern immediately above the clear fern-shaped window. When you hold the note to the light, the fern should match perfectly with another fern on the other side.
3. You should easily be able to see a shadow image of the Queen when you hold the note to the light.
4. Each note has an individual serial number printed horizontally and vertically.
5. Polymer notes have raised printing, which stands up on the surface and can be felt when you run your fingers over it.
6. Tiny micro-printed letters "RBNZ" should be visible with a magnifying glass.
7. Under an ultraviolet light, the polymer note appears dull. Most commercial papers used in forgeries will glow under an ultraviolet light. However, polymer notes contain special inks, which make particular features glow under an ultraviolet light. For example, the front of each genuine note has a fluorescent patch showing the denomination numerals, which can only be seen under an ultraviolet light.

NZ Currency
Sure some people complained it looked like Monopoly money at first, but they have shut up now ;)

>United States dollars work only in the United States. You could say that they're "region coded" too.

Wrong.
US dollars are the offical currency of a growing number of countries. At least two countries in South America (Panama? Guyana?) as well as several Island nations. US Dollars are a main currency of any international deal in North Africa. Reale state deals in Egypt are offten in US dollars.

The goverment bank of New Zealand is currently considering using either a joint Oz/NZ money (which Oz said no way!), Oz money or US money. Claims it will cost the goverment $150 mil a year but will offset much more than that by the continuded dropping of the NZ dollar.