AN ACADEMY OF COINERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13355, 8 December 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN ACADEMY OF COINERS.

SENSATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF

FRAUD IN PARIS.

The French detective police have discovered a band of counterfeiters -who in the last few months have put into circulation nearly £12,000 worth "of false 10-franc' pieces. These false coins are made from crystal. They have the exact weight and produce the same ringing sound when tossed upon a counter as the genuine gold pieces. This is the first time in Fiance that crystal has been employed in counterfeiting. ■; The similarity of the fake and time coins is remarkable. By a. most ingenious process the melted crystal, at a temperature of 100 degrees centigrade, is forced into moulds and assumes the exact counterpart of the familiar 10-franc pieces bearing the head of Napoleon 111. dated 1859. By another equally skilful method, known technically as that of " galvano-plastrie," the crystal coins are covered with a fine film of gold Mich as that used in dental surgery. The only defect in the process is that the false coins are so brittle that when thrown with force upon a marble slab they break into splinters like glass.

.V HANI) OF TWO HUNDRED. The great feature of interest, however, in the present affair, -which still occupies the efforts of a whole division of tho detective force in Paris, is not the scientific processes so successfully employed by the counterfeiters, .but the wonderful organisation by which the false pieces were put into circulation. The band consisted of over two hundred associates, divided into three classed—the "chemists," who made the coins; the "brokers," who bought them, and subsequently sold them to accomplices, and the "circulators," whose business it was to put the false pieces on the market. Tho "che-mists'-were skilful artisans, several of whom had become master goldsmiths. The "brokers'' were largely recruited from female professional beauties, who have replaced the grisettes of the days of Alfred rie Mu'sset and of Balzac, and who often become the" playmates of students in tho Latin Quarter. The "circulators," so far as ascertained, were about 80 in number, and included half a dozen young men of university education and of good family, who attend the lectures at the Sorbonne and the College of France, It is only fair, however, to say that the official corporation of French students declares that none of its members are implicated in the'present scandal. The beautiful garden of the Luxembourg, in the heart of the Latin Quarter, served as a sort of stock exchange for the operators. The police noticed that shortly before sunset numbers of attractive young women and well-dressed students were in the habit of meeting near the Fountain of Marie dc Medicis, and they were often seen to exchange money. It afterward appeared that the "brokers," both men and women; brought to the meeting-place quantities of false 10-franc pieces carefully enveloped in tissue paper and packed in matchboxes. The prices varied each day according to regular-quotations like Government bonds or other securities listed on the Bourse. The current price for a false 10franc piece- was 2£ francs, or 50 cents, when bought in lots of five hundred, and two franc's (40 cents) when purchased by the thousand. The smartly-dressed young men of respectable appearance who put the false coins in circulation carefully avoided operating in the Latin Quarter. They usually selected the racecourses of the Bois de Boulogne or the suburbs, the bars and cafes of the Champs Elysees or of the boulevards, and the concert halls of Montmautre. .On the day of the. Grand Prix de Paris oyer a thousand of these crystal iU-lranc pieces were put in circulation on the racecourse of the Bob de Boulogne, and by an extraordinary coincidence one operator bought a parimutuel ticket of . 200 francs with twenty false 10-franc pieces, and the horse turning out to be a winner the .adventurous purchaser,. received 5000 francs in Bank of France notes,without-the pari-mutuel officials " questioning - the genuineness : of. the 'sonorous crystal coins covered with dentists' . gold film which they had put into the till. In all probability dozens of these false coins passed : through" the hands of American tourists, who, of course, never for a moment suspected that they were counterfeit. . The Paris band was in daily co-operation with the Internatioal Association of False Coiners, which has its headquarters at Barcelona. Branch establishments existed in Nancy. Dresden, Edinburgh, London, and Marseilles. Other "houses" modelled after that of Paris were on the point of being organised in Chicago and at Buenos Ayres. The discovery now made by the French police has nipped the enterprise in the bud. Fifty-five members of the Paris hand have already been captured, and it is believed that before long the number of arrests will exceed two hundred. , .The police obtained their first clue at Dieppe'. Five members of the Paris association, two women and three men, passed their holidays in the racing week at that fashionable Norman watering-place, and attracted the attention of detectives by the prodigal way in which they spent their money. , Singularly enough, it was not the coins, but the spendthrift habits of the .-gay party that aroused suspicion. Their letters and -telegrams, were watched, and ib was soon found out that there was some mysterious connection between the five finely attired tourists at Dieppe and the mysterious persons . who held post-prandial meeting in the Gardens of the Luxembourg. Soon, however, it was noticed that the prodigal visitors made nearly all their payments with 10-franc pieces.. At last the coins that they expended so lavishly were scrutinised. .They passed the tests of weight, of sound and of touch, but when dashed with violence upon a marble slab they were broken into hundreds of splinters' It was then discovered that they were made of crystal. Next day the shopkeepers of Dieppe were to be seen frantically throwing 10-frauc pieces on the stone pavements or striking them .violent blows with a hammer. Fifteen hundred of these crystal 10-franc pieces were destroyed. .