A LONDON "SMASHER."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7583, 23 December 1902, Page 2

A LONDON "SMASHER."

« HIS WORK AND PATRONS,." There are certain things in the back attic of a shabby little house in Hoxton which ■might interest the neighbours, could they manage to peer through its closely-curtain-ed window. Over the coke fire hangs a melting-pot, an iron ladle is lying beside it, and an electric battery stands on the mantel-shelf. On the table, " beside a shapeless mass of bright metal, are some odd-shaped slabs of plaster of Paris 1 ; «ud seated before it is an ekterly man in a leather apron at work with his tools. One 'by on© ti© pick® up the glittering' "white discs thab lie before him on a board, nips off from each its long j " tail "' of metal, and touches up its milled edges at the point of fracture. They look like silver coins — crowns, half-crowns and florins — but the Royal Mint would! repudiate them all. This dingy attic is the workshop of a notorious comer — a " smasher," in the jargon of crime — welL-known in. the old honest days as the cleverest silversmith in Clerkenwell, but an inveterate criminal now. How are .his spurious wares foisted 1 on the market? This smartly-dressed couple walking arm« in-arm down Old Street are among his patrons, and will illustrate the methods of the "snide pitcher," or passer of bad money, as they are practised daily in London. Armed with a purseful of good coin of the realm and a single piece of " snide," the woman selects for her field of action those shops Avhicli are in charge of lads or elderly women ; her partner, as she enters each, takes his stand at a safe distance, prepared to vanish unobtrusively at a hint of trouble. If detected, Jier assumption of innocence will probably save her from arrest ; if successful, she rejoins her companion, takes his arm, and he furtively slips another false coin into her hand/ , In this way the precious pair contrive to pass some two dozsn pieces of counterfeit money in a day.