SPURIOUS SOVEREIGNS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10927, 17 November 1913, Page 7

SPURIOUS SOVEREIGNS.

MANY IN CIRCULATION-IN CUT. WORKED OFF ON THE TOTE. Banks and business places to-day have been discovering here and there among their takings a spurious sovereign or two. The imitation is so aood, however, that probably as many have passed undetected. A request has therefore been made that tho public should be warned against the counterfeits. . One of the coins was shown 'co a reporter this morning at a oity bank, and the remark was passed that it was a wonder the_ teller had detected it. It was a perfect cast of a sovereign, and very little lighter in weight, being cast or stamped of a whitish metal like type metal. _ The gilding was perfect except that it seemed a shade on the strawy side. Even the mint marks and engraver's initials were perfectly brought and the police inclined to the belief that it was the result of a plaster cast. An expert, however.-, ' expressed the opinion that it was taken from a dto, and that the counterfeiter was no amateur. The amusing ride of tho fraud is that evidently all the coins were put in circulation through tho totalisator at Riccarton, the perpetrator thinking perhaps that _ it was no sin to practice this deception on ihe Jockey Club. :low.v?.r, a many of the sovereigns were paid out in dividends, and now xli ay aro in general circulation. The coins ring "e'l, and a closo scrutiny is requirjd to reveal the sham.