IMITATION COINS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13455, 6 April 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

IMITATION COINS.

PAPER MONEY IX SCOTTISH

CHURCH OFFERTORIES. j I In- the annals of Scottish Presbyterianism, ; especially in country districts, a copper) I coin, the bawbee tor preference, has always I been reserved for the church plate. That) is the tradition at least. Now, however, itj is said that churches are plagued by imitation money, made of silvered pasteboard, being put into the offertory on Sunday. In a letter to the Scotsman, a clergyman says:— ! "Twice I have beer grieved to find thif •paper money' in the church plate, and to-] day, among a handful of change given to! me by a shopkeeper, I discovered an ap- | parently new, but entirely worthless, shilling. No one can quarrel with the ingenuity displayed in the manufacture of| these 'coins.' They are absolutely perfect , —to look at. It is only when the victim . begins to count his money on his return , home that he discovers 'weighty' reasons), for rejecting them as legal tender. In my 'opinion, their issue should be made illegal." . j Other clergymen in the district have had'< a similar experience. The police laugh at!: j the id<'u that such money would go into circulation. Nobody in theii senses would be deceived by it, and it is on that account i that nothing "has even been done to put a stop to its issue. ho ,far as the Edinburgh , police know, nobody has ever tried to pass ' off an imitation pasteboard sixpence or other) < coin as a genuine coin of the realm. How|ever, it was stated that, if the practice was! {growing of money of this kind being put into the church plate, it might bf a rjues- . tion whether the Government could not interfere to prevent its manufacture, on) the ground that clergymen were being de-; frauded. But in that case they might have to stop also the Birmingham button trade, for the paper coins are apparently only used by those shabby people who. without the • [imitations, would put a button in the oflcijtory. i