LONDON SENSATION

Hokitika Guardian, 12 January 1925, Page 4

LONDON SENSATION

FORGED NOTES DISCOVERY. j LONDON, November 1. ! Police ami banks all over the conn- 5 try arc making strenuous efforts to <lis- ( cover the source of forged Treasury < notes, printed with such perfect finish 1 as to defy the greatest experts. 1 For some time thousands of forged 1 £1 and 10s currency notes have been 1 in circulation, and of these many him- | dreds were- seized as a result of a raid , at Greenwich a week or two ago. These notes, however, are not to he compared with the latest series of forged notes, which are now being passed in different parts of the country. The notes seized at Greenwich, and also others produced from the same plates, were tolerably good copies of genuine ones, and although their faults were obvious to hank clerks and others who cared to scrutinise them, they were sufficiently deceptive to pass unchallenged in a, poor light or in a batch of other notes. A GREAT STRIDE. The latest specimens of the forger’s art, however, show a surprising improvement on the Greenwich .notes. They are clearly printed or. crisp paper in which the I rcasury water mark ha.s been faithfully reproduced, the colouring is true, and there is no perceptible blurring, which so frequently exposes a forged note. Indeed, a hank official who .has had an opportunity of seeing several of these notes, stated that he had never seen such wonderful imitations. When the .present Treasury notes were issued it was claimed that they could not be forged. The design was adopted, because in 1010 the old notes were forged by a gang who were sentenced to long terms of penal servitude at the Old Dailey. When the shop where the notes were printed was raided by Scotland Yard detectives, one of the men was caught busily printing the lorgod notes, and there was found otr the premises paper sufficient to print many hundreds of thousands. Notes of a new design were at once put into circulation, hut the hope then expressed that they would defy the forgers’ efforts has now been falsified. HOW IT WAS .FOUND OUT. The forged notes have been received without, any question hv hanks and tradesmen in various parts of the country. The fact that they were in circula-

lion was not discovered until some of them were sent in process of time to the Bank of England. When notes reach the bank they are destroyed, and their numbers registered. and it was because notes with similar numbers to these arrived at the hank that the plot was disclosed. No two ovmiino notes, of course June tluplica to numbers. Detectives employed by the Bank of England ami Somerset House have received reports from the highest experts in the country who have found certain clues in the forged notes whuh, it is believed, will result in the l"' mt " o rs being traced and the whole gang arrested. Meanwhile il is stated that the authorities are seriously considering the issue of Treasury notes of an entirely different design.