LEVINE RELEASED

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 64, 9 December 1930, Page 11

LEVINE RELEASED

Curious Misunderstanding MEDALLIONS AND COINS (Rec. December 8, 5.5 p.m.) Vienna, December 7. The Public Prosecutor has suspended the proceedings against Charles Levine, the millionaire American aviator, who was arrested on a charge of being concerned In a coinage conspiracy, owing to absence of proof. He is leaving immediately by air. Levine for the first time told a “Daily Telegraph” correspondent the full story of the counterfeiting affair. He explained that he had been planning a solo round-the-world flight from New York, which he hoped to do in fifteen days. He ordered the machine’s equipment in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, and conceived the idea of striking medallions to distribute in celebration of the flight.

He went to Vienna and saw a sculptor named Mazura, explaining in bad German that he wanted bls own bust on one side and an aeroplane encir 4ing the globe on the other. He showed him some French half, one, and two f.-anc pieces as samples of the size. The sculptor on the following day informed the police. "I was arrested, but treated the affair for three days as a mere jest,” said Levine, “but the police declined to see the absurdity of anyone wanting to counterfeit twopenny pieces.” Levine’s lawyers are now proposing to sue for compensation.