FORGED £10 NOTES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2491, 18 June 1915, Page 6

FORGED £10 NOTES

LAST YEAR'S SWINDLE REVIVED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland June 19. The sensation caused by the widespread circulation of forged £10 notes in Auckland during Easter week of last year will not have been forgotten, and it has been revived by the negotiation of another forged £10 note at the Auckland Post Office this week. . _ The note is a clever photographic imitation of the genuine article. It is perfect in' design and.colouring, and is the work of an expert photographer and lithographer: the paper alone is not in. accord with the regulation bank stationery, but. is nevertheless a very, good imitation. •. The forgery itself is a photograph reproduced in two colours, black _ and reddish brow.i, and every detail is so distinctly reproduced that there is nothin" to distinguish it from the gennine°note, the multitudinous tiny tenß which form the background of every legitimate note, and are intended: to baffle penmen, are faithfully ; photo-, graphed. The manager's signature looks as genuine as the rest of the production, and the date line "Oct. Ist, 1913." which again differs in colour, has been put on witTi a rubber stamp in red ink. The fake is complete, even to perforation. _ . The note found its way into the hands of a clerk at the. Monev Order counter, -and was negotiated by him. How well done the forgery is may be gauged by the fact that it passed through several bands at the Post Office before it was discovered to be of no value. An examination revealed t'hat this is undoubtedly one of the notes struck off when the wholesale fraud of last year perpetrated. On that it is nelieved nearly £1000 worth of spurious notes were .circulated. Small tradespeople through--out the city, and jwrticularlv in Karannrahape Road and S.vmonds Street were defrauded in large numbers, and even a bank teller was caught. Tne tear v,Ms then entertained that a good number of these notes went, through the t-otalisator at the Ellerslie Easter Meetins. . . , . This particular note mnv be just an odd one held for a year by some person originally defrauded, and dishonest enough to nass it on now to someone else. On tlie other 'hand, it- is possiblo that one of the three men who worked the swindle l*st year still be m Auckland, Tnay still n? \w possession of a bundle of forged notes. It would be well, therefore, for business twwle to keep an observant eye on all £10 notes. Tlio note cashed at the Post Office this week was a little faded, and bore the same number nnd as those of list, venr's sw'idle. The number is jfiSKMP. dated Onteher Ist, 1913. Apt £10 Bank of New Zealand not» of this number and date may , therefore be >«falv hold up.