BOYS’ COINING DEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 March 1940, Page 8

BOYS’ COINING DEN

HALF-CROWNS MADE AT NIGHT An innocent-looking shed, backing on a row of cottages in ‘Woking, Surrey, was used for three months as a coiners’ den by four local youths. In that time, it was stated at ‘the Old Bailey? London, they made 100 halfcrowns. All four stood in the dock. They pleaded guilty to making 21 counterfeit half-crowns, making and possessing a. mould and edging tool, and uttering a bad half-crown. They were Harold Frank Trussler, aged 20, a motor mechanic, his six-teen-year-old brother, Reginald, a mechanic improver, Albert William Pullen, aged 17, and Reginald Arthur Cox, aged 16, both errand boys. „ Mr. P. Devlin, prosecuting, said that the boys belonged to respectable families. The coining den was run on the lines of a syndicate. Harold Trussler initiated the scheme and made the necessary die, which was not the usual article of plaster of paris, but was made of an aluminium alloy and had been described as a craftsman’s job. An extremely good impression of a half-crown was made. The boys met two or three nights a week in the shed. . Detective F. Messenger, of Woking, said that after a number of coins had been passed, local shopkeepers were warned. The hoys were caught after, one of them had passed a bad coin in a shop. All the boys had good characters, and the employers of-three of them were prepared to take them back. Mr. Peter Lawless, a retired Scotland Yard official who stated that he had known the Trussler family for some years, thought the coining was just a foolish adventure. Reginald Trussler, Pullen and Cox were bound over for three years. Harold Trussler was remanded.