METHODS OF COUNTERFEITERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10595, 26 October 1910, Page 6

METHODS OF COUNTERFEITERS.

■ At an earlier period tlie method of ,manufacturing base coin- was as .simple 'as the method of detection, a pair of scissors,"a sheet of brass, and some silver or gold in a melted condition constituting the entire outfit. The coiner of todiav is an alchemist, a skilled worker in metals, something of an electrician prid generally he follows a trade as well.'' ] Convictions for coining are few and fir between, but they do not prove that coming is on the decrease, says the London-Globe, but merely tlfat the difficulties of detection hav®,become. :more, ■ptonouriced, iii proportion ,to .the .increaked knowledge of the'' coiner. Yteara'bf study arid' experiende'" are necessary'before' the' riioclem -coilier is proficient -aiid' .'pfteh ye'ajrs ate spent in wktdhing find the building up of evidence'; beforelie is. caught. is more ; especially difficult to' discover oWirig to the -itfaiiy' "fences" ■lie eAployS. . Men, wotijen. and sometiines children -all have a .finger in., the pie,'^a'nd ; it'~is the tiile''-for bbiint&ffeifc coin to pass'through hcilf 'h.'clozeh'' ferent hands before it finds its way into the shopkeeper's till. Indeed very frequently the "utterer"; has no idea of ■the manufacturer nor of the locality where he resides. Another difficulty is th'at- in a great many instances people arts in possession- .of Without lcitawingHt, anc[ if the ; police arrested evfcrv'person in possessipn of counterfeit coin they would have their Hands. .full. ; <- • ' 'L ft will be remembered that at . the time of the Jubilee five pound " pieces were struck to commemorate the event and made up in the form of brooches. This gave the coiners a grand oppor- ' tuhity and they seized it, selling sphrious brooches for half the price or the real ones and getting twice the money they were wortli. The • same thing was done with the "lucky six-r pences," and as a- greatmanypeople; arfe perfectly willing to pay the, fullvalue and sometimes more for ( a sixpence with a hole in it the fraud .-is laitly lucrative.

The Barcelona "sovereign"/is ah :excelient ex&mplfe of iHeVup Vto date' coiifer's work. The milling would defy the; examination of any one save an expert ; they ring true, and they contain sixteen shillings worth, of pure gold. Thfe jdatei is 1862; therefore it'is"advisable t'o shun tsbvereigns purporting to have been strjuck in that year, although no one wiSo isflot a numismatist will notice_tlie difference between the "Barcelona" and a sovereign, V! " ' (Jeofgfe' IV. "half-crown;; are another isstie much'copied by coiners, tJie half-. ; cfdwns being made to look old by rvibr , biiig them over with a scrubbing brush' cohered with lampblack whilo they are. on'ithe burnishing board. 4 case which shows the ingenuity uscid in passing counterfeit coin is the following: A tailor who was also: a very successful coiner had a little daughter who was some ten yearsold.'She was being taught to play, the .violiiV land 'twice a week she went "to have* aS' '-Susie lesson at a house about a mile distant.- Once a • week she carried 'beside her violin case and violin,; a package cunningly secreted in tie false .b'ot-" ton! of the, violin case ;whicli contained some twenty-'or pieces of couhteff«Siii coin. >' . : •

The music master, a rogue who was in the know, found no'difficulty in abstracting the package unnoticed by = the chifd,- and in his turn? pUssed it on to a. woman fence, who again gave it to a male, friend who delivered it safely, to the! utterer, a woman again, n't a street corner, the package being 'this time concealed in the false bottom of it-canary cage. Thus it passed through six' hands and besides the man himself only the music master knew who manufactured the! coin. ?

The tailor was caught by an unlucky accident. His littlfe' girl U| let' the violin case fall in the. street, the bottom of the case was smashed and -.aU the coins, done up in tissue paper, fell into the street. The child irivich ' mystified, opened one of the little packages and the; glitter caught a policeman's eye. This mishap led to the instant arrest of the! tailor, who confessed, hoping for a liglit sentence, a hope which was _ not realized'. Among the coiner's stock in trade were "discovered works on fourteen moulds, two batteries, I'plaste 1 'plaster 0 of Paris,.- favo ladles, a melting pot, crucibles, and a quantity of chemicals.

I4i manufacturing coin the method of procedure is somewhat as follows: First of iill each coiner has his pattern piece, wlijch is df course genuine. For metal he fusess&lder or better still, pewter pofe melted down, and of necessity sortie silver, or if he is a master-hand he makescoins of three-quarter value or mote. ..Jho metal is poured into the bast, which is then clamped together. When set the coins are put on a rack, which is electrified," and when sufficiently icharged they are immersed in a vat containing a solution of syanide of silver .at ia fairly high -.temperature. They ; are in fact electroplated. and the mill- : is done not infrequently with a penknife, Avliich requires a skilful operator. The coins are then , burnished and sometimes dirtied or -nibbed, arid when : finished they are done up in paper and made into bundles.so as; not to rattle. ! A woman arrested on. suspicion • was ; found ' on 1 hcm<> searched to have no fewer thin 130 spurious half-crowns sewed up' in her skirt. " It is very difficult indeed to detect bad coin,- but there is one infallible test if it bite's grittily it is bad, if smoothly it 'is genuine. ; ,