THE NATIONAL SAVINGS MOVEMENT 271 
the same time have a pair of date labels stamped with the date 
on which the stamps were purchased—say lst January. On, 
perhaps, 1st May a member brings a completed card, which the 
Secretary can exchange at the Post Office for a Certificate. On 
this, and on the counterfoil which is sent to the Money Order 
Office, a date label is fixed, and the effective date from which 
the Certificate begins to earn interest is 1st January, when 
the secretary bought the stamps, instead of perhaps 1st May 
when the member completed the payment for his certificate. 
This scheme involves no account keeping, and merely a periodical 
inspection of assets in order to see that the secretary holds 
cash or stamps to the value of his credit stock. 
These details are not without importance, particularly since 
the war, since the devising of suitable schemes is a more difficult 
matter than most people would think. Even the increased 
thickness of the counterfoils resulting from sticking on date 
labels has to be considered in connexion with the storing of 
millions of counterfoils at the Money Order Office in London. 
Opportunities for possible fraud have to be guarded against ; 
the aggregate cost of the most trifling feature may amount to 
a large sum, and numerous other considerations have to be 
taken into account. 
The savings of the small investor can be invested in War 
Loans and Bonds of various issues through the Post Office and 
Trustee Savings Banks, but the Government security with 
which the schemes here being described are concerned is almost 
entirely the National Savings Certificate, which was first 
issued in February 1916 on the recommendation of the Montagu 
Coramittee. 
From February 1916 to March 1922 certificates cost 15s. 6d. 
each, and became 26s. at the end of ten years. The second 
series commenced on 1st April 1922, and continued till the end 
of September 1923 ; the price was increased to 16s. and the 
certificate became worth 26s. at the end of ten years. 
A third series was commenced 1st October 1923. The price 
remained at 16s. but the certificate became worth £1 at the 
end of six years, instead of at the end of five, and at the end of