COUNTERFEIT COIN AT WHOLESALE RATES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14566, 31 December 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

COUNTERFEIT COIN AT WHOLESALE RATES.

MAKER'S SMALL PROFIT. C Tin: market in counterfeit coin was indicated with the exactness of a trade circular at Old-street, London. The "utterer." it was explained, paid 6s 6d id ra "sovereign's worth" of bad florins, buying them from a middleman, who obtained them from the manufacturer at ss. Tho '"ntterer'sprofit , is, therefore, 13s 6d, or 107 per cent. Tho middleman's profit is Is 6d, or 30 per cent.

His risk is. however, comparatively small, as he merely carries the coins from one to another. When the maker sells coins of the face value of £1 for 5s that represents his gross takings. In order to arrive, at his profit one has to allow for material and skilled labour, so that compared with the "tflfcrer" his profits are small, but he n.:.; practically 110 risk.

The person taking the risks was the ntterer, said counsel, in one of a group of cases witlr which the magistrate was concerned, and it was not often a case of so much interest was obtained, or that so coirif > a discovery had been made as here.

Detectives had driven up in a pantechnicon to the Pitts Head public-house, Bethnal Oreen, and suddenly issuing forth and dashing into the house, had made important captures in the billiard-room, and had arrests during the week following. .* As a, result, 12 men appeared in custody charged with possessing counterfeit coins or uttering counterfeit coins, or having moulds and materials for making them.

Detective-Sergeant Wright told of the sudden incursion into the billiard-room of the Pitts Head and the arrest of five men there, and then of the visit to the cellars of the house, whither they were accompanied by Creasy. Creasy said no one went into the cellars but himself, and that lie kept the keys. The finding of counterfeit coins behind the barrels was described.

The fact was mentioned that after tho ■ raid and an arrest immediately following, the police got three more men 'in the street, and something like 250 base coins, for the most part florins. Some shillings and crown pieces were among the coins seized.

When these three men, Arthur Kih'ain, of Cross's Lane, Spiial fields; James Oearey, of the White House common lodg-ing-house, Flower and Dean-street; and William Smith, of Old Ford Road, Bow, were placed in the dock, evidence was given by a Mrs. Wheeler, of the Romford Arms beerhouse, Fieldgate-street, E., of which her husband is the licensee, that on the previous evening Kilrain and another man _ called for refreshment, Kilrain tendering a florin in payment, she giving him Is lOd change. After they had left, the coin was found to be base. Two other charges of uttering were mentioned against Kilrain, and a remand was ordered.

James Gearey, said Detective Rutter, was arrested by him in If anbury-street. He denied tli-3 charge, but at the station the oflicer round three spurious florins, dated 1875, in his trousers pocket. When the officer point-ed out that they wore counterfeit, Gearey sv ore at him, and exclaimed : "You pot them in my pocket. You can't say I've been in for this before. I know we've got to go through it now." As in the other cases, a remand was ordered. The magistrate said the Treasury must Lave opportunity to consider the framing«-pf a-casc- as a whole.