ODD INFORMATION

Taranaki Daily News, 31 October 1935, Page 7

ODD INFORMATION

A FORTUNE IN MINT CHIMNEYS. TRUST FOR FREEING SLAVES. Blue books rarely offer light reading, but some odd and interesting gems of information sparkle in the pages of the report from, the Select Committee on Estimates, says the Daily Telegraph. Foi’ instance, it is revealed that a fortune lies in the chimneys and drains of the Mint. Sir Robert Johnson, its Deputy Master and Comptroller, told the committee that silver gets into these places in the process of manufacture. A good part of it is recovered, but something like £lOOO worth is lost every year. “When we were doing gold,” said Sir Robert, “the ‘sweeps’ were worth a lot of money.” The Mint costs the taxpayer nothing, thanks to its profits on making coins and reclaiming silver from withdrawn old coins. “We are worth to the Exchequer about £250,000 a year,” Sir Robert stated. There is very little counterfeiting. Only about a dozen prosecutions occur in a year.

Birmingham has a private Mint, which coins for foreign countries. , The evidence from the Charity Commission reveals that it supervises a medieval trust for the freeing of Barbary slaves. But since for a long time there have been no slaves left to free, the money is spent on education. Tire Public Record Office has an unguessable connection with the Vatican. Mr. A. E. Stamp, the deputy keeper, told the committee it had a man who was supposed to go regularly to Rome to make extracts of documents relating to the history of England. They are diplomatic correspondence of appointments by medieval Popes to bishoprics, and so on. The work has got down to the year 1585 so far.