RISE OF THE “MONEYDRAINERS”

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 208, 29 May 1926, Page 22

RISE OF THE “MONEYDRAINERS”

CONVERSION OF FRENCH COINS INTO BULLION. Some 1500 judicial proceedings have been begun during the last year against “money-drainers,” says a Paris sage reported in the “Morning Post. These are people who convert old French coins—whoso worth, now that the franc has depreciated, is far above their face value—into oullion. In nearlj every French cottage there is a family sock hidden in the chimney or beneath the mattress filled with metal coins, and it is these hoards that the moneydrainers tap. Two French deputies have put forward a proposal that the Minister for Financo should be authorised to acquire these stocks of silver and gold at a reasonable rate. They urge that such a measure would both pu.t a stop to an undesirable trade, and provide a bullion reserve which would go far to help the stabilisation rf the franc. It is usually the Reporter-Gene-ral of tae Budget who fathers such pro posals as these, and M Lamoureux had decided tn take the matter up when the Government fell, but when the next Government was formed he found that he was Minister for Public Instruction At present no Reporter-General exists. bo the money-drainers nre ci-ill without an- rivals in the business.