BOGUS SOVEREIGNS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18973, 26 March 1924, Page 5

BOGUS SOVEREIGNS

STRANGE GERMAN “CURIOS.” FIND THEIR WAY TO NEW ZEALAND. There was shown to a New Zealand Times’ representative the other day a remarkable product of German ingenuity and industry, which, in some unexplained manner, has been permitted to come into New Zealand, and which, if allowed full freedom of importation, may do incalcuable harm, it is a large oval disc on which are placed what at first glance seem to be 19 British sovereigns of the reigns of Queen Victoria, King Edward, and King George, showing both the obverse and the reverse sides. It is a remarkably clever piece of work, for on a cursory examination the coins look like real sovereigns. But, when looked into closely, it is found that they are made of some base metal, evidently poured into dies on which the British sovereigns had been stamped, and afterwards coated with a thhi coating of gold; so that it is very difficult to distinguish them from real coins.

The coins are welded together into an oval shape, and it is said that they were sent to New Zealand as “curios,” with the idea of being used as paperweights. There are one or two points in connection with the matter that are likely to be inquired into by the authorities. “As curios they are not really valuable,” remarked the paper’s informant, “and when it is considered that Germany’s financial straits are such that they have embarrassed the financiers of the world, it is somewhat ironic that such things should apparently be manufactured wholesale in that country and distributed to the four corners of the globe.”