COINER CLEVERLY CAUGHT

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3491, 29 October 1926, Page 4

COINER CLEVERLY CAUGHT

CIVILIAN tVHO TURNED SHERLOCK. For some time Glasgow was greatly troubled by the circulation of a considerable number of counterfeit coins, and the while the police were very successful in getting on to the trail of men and women who play the part of circulation agents they failed to clean out the secret houses where the coins were manufactured. Up to recently the coins in many cases were obviously “duds,” but, apparently one of the "mints” wherein they are made has achieved a standard of high excellence, and some of jls products secured by the police wer e described by an expert who has handled thousands of counterfeit coins as the best imitations he has ever come in contact with.

He states that it is only on the closest examination that one can realise that they are not the genuine article. In appearance and weight there is litle to discern between them and the real coin of the realm. Analysing them it was found that they were composed of a mixture of aluminium, tin and antimony, with a small proportion of lead, and copper to give the necessary weight. That there is a perfect nest of counterfeiters in the city the Criminal Investigation Department is fully aware, but, as can be readily understood, there are many obstacles in the way of getting at the “mint," which never remains long in one place. Slowly but surely, however, the ranks of the men and women employed in this type of crime—which is looked upon by the authorities with a very severe eye—are being reduced. The latest to fall into the hands of] the police is a young married man' named Samuel Dyer, whose home is in Hallslde Street, •in the east end of the city. He is an ex-soldier, and for some time past has been out of work, depending on the parish to maintain his wife and child. Suspects Followed. Dyer’s arrest came about as the result of the vigilance of a civilian who! was standing at Gaol Square listening I to the outpourings of a racecourse I tipster. This civilian noticed that] Dyer was standing along with two of three other men, and that all went; forward and bought the tips, each' handing the man a two-shilling piece l, and receiving one shilling and ninepence in change. The civilian was struck by the fact that all of these men should have bought tips when one would have done. And also by the fact that eat/, of them changed a florin. Adopting for himself the role of Sherlock Holmes he decided to keep an eye on the men and this he did, following them about for a considerable time. He discovered that they went into a number of shops, and, asking for small packets of cigarettes, handed out a florin, receiving in many cases one and sixpence change. Latterly he called the police and explained the circumstances. The result was that three men were arrested. One of them was Samuel Dyer, and another Dyer's father. In the possession of young Dyer was a coin, an imitation of a two-shipping piece, and it was this coin that the expert later said was the host example of a counterfeit ho had ever seen. Dyer’s explanation was that he got the coins from another man, who told him that they were dud, and that if he could get them changed there would be good commission given in return. He was sentenced to twelve months.