"SPOTTING" BAD COINS.

Hastings Standard, Volume XIII, Issue 4310, 13 November 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

"SPOTTING" BAD COINS.

THE WAY A BANK CASHIER DETECTS COrXTERFE! TS. T have often been asked, said a bank cashier to the writer, how it is that, with thousands of coins of all values passing daily through my Imnds. I am able to detect counterfeit-, instantaneously. Of course, there are various methods, known to every bank cashier, of testing a suspected coin. There is the more important te';t of weight (base coins invariably weighing light), the test of brittleness fa genuine coin is practically unbreakable), and inexact ''milling.'' not to mention more elaborate tests with acids. But these may be disregarded, for th" simple reason that a cashier on a busy counter ha> no time to employ such tests. It i; impossible for i'int to pick up and examine each coin

i i nrat *ly. has to fount money i Tilth extreme rapidity, and lias no time j to br<to\v more than a glance on the | coins he is raking in—a glance which | rovers several coin." at the same time, j I-Tow is it po.'«ib!e for him in this frac-tion-of-a-sce.'md t<> di tin4iii>h [ b tween a coin and a counterfeit? Hank men themselves are far from j clear on the snbj *cfc. Most cashiers, ion heinyr qn* .-tinned, will tell yon that the "feci" of a counterfeit coin i.s different, ''This peculiar '"feel" they will describe as greasy. But mr>ney received ! from hut'-hers, for instance, is invariable- greasy, just as money received from . publican.* or fish-merchants i< sticky. Tt is certainly not by the seme of touch that one detects connterifit coins. Nor i? pood eyesight an infallible C«nrd against a really well made b.isc coin. Some counterfeits are S'> cleverly dona thai th" .'-harpist eyes are unable, by merely glnncinjr at them. to di>finbetween them and the genuine article. Thu ordv explanation I can offer is that after a certain amount of exneii- [ eiire amongst good o >in« a mc.ii acrftiires | .1 sort of ''instinct'' for counterfeits. It is this instinct which canoes him t < : hesitate and examine a particular coin i when <•! • • k'n r money rapidly. Often I have been pulled up sharp on encounterins; a cor: identical in appearance with those fnrroundine: it. and have found it. on careful examination, to be a_ "wrong It looked and felt, all right, but failed to stand a detailed scrutiny. One must remember, however, that it is impracticable to give this detailed scrutiny to every coin,

cnJ, unless my theory be accepted, it is impossible to explain what makes one select a particular coin for examination.