MELTING MONEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8029, 6 June 1904, Page 3

MELTING MONEY.

WHY SOVEREIGNS ARE MADE INTO JEWELLERY. Not long ago the Government wae impelled to consider the familiar question "where the money goes" from a new and literal standpoint, the discrepancy between the number of minted sovereigns and those returned to the Bank of England being so large as to call for investigation. It, was established at the time thatjthe coinage was in high favour with jewellers as a raw material of their manufactures, but nothing oame of the inquiry m the direction of limiting its use. Consequently iv jewellery factories all over the countov sovereigns are thrown m handfuls* into the furnace end She Kings image resolved into a -white-hot anaes which presently emerges to form chains and trinkets At the first blush the practice would appear- illegal, as coming under tfce head ot " defacing the King's coinage. But jewellers make no secret of it. " As a matter of fact," said a well-known Birmingham -jeweller, "there is nothing illegal about it If I have earned, or otherwise 'honeatlv acquired, a sovereign, it is mine to do with as I please. I could throw it into the sea if I wished. The law only steps in if I, attempt to pass the com after tampering with it. "At one time we used to buy light sovereigns, which the Bank of England test^ ing machines had rejected and -lopped in half But th* Bank has ceased to sell them, and, although we use considerable -refiners gold, even the large firms melt .down fresh, clean sovereigns in great numbers. " Iwe are many reasons for preferring the ooins. They are handy in use, they are more economical in working i-ban pure gold, and owing to the tremendous pressure they have to bear at the Mint, the metal is usually more : ductile than other > gold Finally, a sovereign melted down is still worth'lSs IOd."