A Gilded Sixpence.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume xxii, Issue 6457, 29 December 1904, Page 4

A Gilded Sixpence.

At the Thames (Auckland) Police Court, on Fiiday, a stranger to the Thames named Donald Stewart, was charged with pa^sins? a countprfeit coin in the shape of a halfsovereign, The coin was really a sixpence, cleverly g i'ded to appear like a halfsovereign. The imitation ?eeu from thf head side, was a clever one. The evidence showed that the accused presented the coin to the barmaid of the Imperial Hotel on the 21st insfc., iv payment f"r drink, and hb received 9s 6d change. The co;n was afterwards handled by the landlord of the hotel, and made up into a parcel of change with 10s in silver, and the fraud was not detected until about three hours later, when the barmaid, in change fora £1 note tendered the supposed half sovereign with some silver, and in pacing the coin down on the counter happened to do co with the head down, when it was immediately noticed. This was the only half-sovereign she had changed during the afternoon, and the accused, when charged, did not deny having tendered the coin, but pleaded isrnorance of the fact that it was not a genuine half-sovereign. The accused was committed to the Supreme Court at Auckland.