TESTS FOR BAD MONEY

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1924, Page 3

TESTS FOR BAD MONEY

1 am constantly asked how to recognise had money, writes a bank eashiei in Fee “Daily News.” 'There is fat more about than the average man thinks. One catering linn at a recent agricultural show leeeived neatly £lB in had money ol various kinds. lln fact, that the model'll nickel cuius discolour so readily give the coiner groatei scope. He knows that shopkeepers are busy that they getierallv pass a “dud” without a second glance, and even should their suspicious he aroused he relies upon their inability '<> determine whether it be a counterfeit oa genuine one t-hat lias become “it nished. Once it is paid mto a hank, however, it is sure to lie detected, and is immediately broken or bent so limit cannot be used again. How does a bank cashier manage te “spot” them'/ In the first plite-- he haiimloubtedly. become possessed ol a

kind of instinct for detecting the spurious. due to long familiarity with the genuine article. There i' a peculiar ‘•sheen" on a bail coin which, to atoli''Tvant eye. makes it contrast strikinglv with other coins around it. Eve*bv tomb it is quite possible to dof.inrt'ish a bad "'in from a good onethere is a “silkier P'el about it. Whenever a bank cashier lias Ids suspicions nroused he will always elosel.'. scrutini'e the detail on the coin. The line dots running round the eireum feree.ee never come out distinctly in one that lias been east from a mould. He looks narrowly at the strings of the hum on the reverse of the half-crown (this i' the favourite coin with the coiner) bo,mix- they never anneal' sharp and distinct in a “dud.' In a bail shilling the d -ts on the top of the crown on which the lion is standingand the small crown on the lion's hoaß are til wavs blurred and indistinct.

It is practically useless nowadays te test a coin by ringing it on n counter. Generally speaking, base coins have

(,nite as clear a fine as eood ones. A!any of th-■ issued bv the Mint <rive forth no rintr at all owimr to a sli-ht cruel; occasioned in the oroeess o* sta mi'iirr. These are two infallible tests |>v which anyone may determine whether a coin is genuine or not. A base coin is always very much lighter in weight than a similar one issued by the Mint.. And. if it be inserted in a small vice or a copyiiiu press, it is finite casile lirolp'n