SPURIOUS £10 NOTES

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2124, 16 April 1914, Page 6

SPURIOUS £10 NOTES

|f| ROGUE'S ASIWMi COUP ■'.</' ■■OVER, SIXTY FOISTED ON TO '■' :;p-i: ■ SHOPKEEPERS yg:jSDEEP ; &-DI,EVER PLAN.^7. {J;-(ily'.'JWoufoph.-FrcES AsEocNillon.) *■].' :'■■;■■■■ "\ ■ Auckfand, April 15. ■■When the various hanks in tho city opened /or business this morning and imdespcoplo began to pay in money it was discovered that a swindlo of con* csiitcrnblo dimensions had been perpetrated during tho holidays. Tho teller at tho suburban branch of tho Hank of New Zealand discovered in a pay-in a very good counterfeit £10 Honk of Now' Zealand nolo. Other hanks in tho city wero at onco warned, hut already a. .number of tho notes had boon accepted by tellers. From then on hank toilers ail over tho city were kept busy explaining to angrv shopkeepers that tho £10 notes which tin-y wished to pay in wore forgeries, and numerous customers in shops where tho had news had been received, and who tendered "tensors" were subject' ed to embarrassing cross-examination. To-night tho police iavo received information that over sixty counterfeits liavo been discovered, and there is little doubt that many more aro in circulation.

A Bad Night for Shopkwipors. Tho counterfeiters laid their plans well. Tho notes wore put into eireula* tion oa Saturday, when it Was known that thrco days must elapse before the banks open, and tho fraud could ho detected. Tho .modus operandi was simple On Saturday night, for instance, a man wont along tho Karangahnpu Road, entered -every shop that was open, and purchased something wherever bo eouid got change for his £10 notes. His purchases seldom ran to moro than a tow shillings, but be' bought all sorts of things—chocolates and cycle accessories, fruit and ladies' stockings, bottles of brandy, and shaving soap, and in every caso got genuine currency for his spurious notes,

Totalisator Used, Too. The police, ef course, are bard on tho track of at least one individual who lias been described by scores of revengeful shopkeepers, but tho swindlers have had. three clear days' start, and persons of their apparent ingenuity will carefully cover their tracks. It is thought likely that, forged notes Were also put into circulation through tho totalisator at Ellerslio en Saturday and Monday. _ If this is the case they have, by this limo no doubt, been distributed all over tho province. Affiaiing Cleverness of the Rogues., Banking officials are of opinion that th.o forgery is the cleverest thing of the kind ever seen in Auckland, and add that it 'is tho most widely worked swindle of tho kind yet perpetrated in the eity. Th-e notes all bear tho date October 1, 1913, and the number 169948, and are evidently tho work of a. skilled photographer and lithographer. When carefully compared with genuine notes, however, tho forgery is easily seen, tho shade ef the filigree border being brown instead erf black, and details in tho Bote are- blurred instead of being biaek and sharp,' and the. mountain, which shows as an intermediate tone in the picture on the left-hand side,, is completely missing from the fargery. Th© printing on tho back, which should bo a mass of tens in the smallest type, is simply ablur. Tho back watermark is also missing from tho paper, but the latter ap>preaches very nearly to tho quality of tho genuine article. Tho loft sid'o of the note shows the perforation mark in tho ordinary way.