SPURIOUS COINS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14292, 11 February 1910, Page 5

SPURIOUS COINS.

' V " •' V ■' ' ■ > LOSSES IN CHRISTCHURCH. -' f ■ • . / [BY telegraph.—press association.] • >.' • Christchubch. Thursday. A large, number of spurious coins are in circulation in Christchurch. One big lhm ? is reported to have been victimised to the y extent of £13 in one day. The Tramway Board has also suffered to some ex- - tent. . ■ • ' Thf> Southland . News , was recently V shown a remarkably good imitation of a half-crown similar to those believed to be. circulating in Christchurch and Dunodin. ■y On - first . appearance the spurious coin 4- vould have passed unnoticed, so exact \ .' worn the features, but a test by ringing,jtind the' judicious: us© of a pocket-knife, the fact that instead of being ; ■ ; worth ?«'6d ft had an intrinsic worth of l . ,'ab<ut 6d. It was a silver-plated coppcrlead alloy. . Spurious coins are also fairly v : thick in r Wellington, and many tradespeople are in the habit of looking twice at all coins—especially half-crowns and florins —before ; , finally . depositing ' {hem in the •' y till. >\ Not long ago a Wellington hotel* keeper discovered a bagful of bogus florins v$ l. "dropped in a hurry," ,in his back yard, '4 -V'though why they were thus left he could 9oi 'say.-.v.; v . . ; ' .. '■