CLEANING COINS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 September 1932, Page 3

CLEANING COINS

FROM.BILLINGSGATE Ml\gßETo. : AN UNOFFIOIAL, ;‘BATHROPM.”‘ .. , tir , : X :■ ' , LONDON,, September 26. ,’ iA •been acting as." 'uitollicial •(‘bathroom’’ to :|he coins -of RilPngs-gate-Market (saj%' , the AMornUig.- Post-'o'-f:iLondon). •'••• - ;■ 1 ~

' Corns -- that en-toi' ''-‘Bil'-irigsgate:, frimh: arid! >bright from "the" Mint leave- it thick with herring-roe,' scales;: errimbs of ■"ice, freezing' salt,-'v and : any mudhandy. The bank, struggled with -then! in vain. ’’ '

They , stuck toe ’ : bv-hrui effort-' write’ made to count them’, they reeto-d ■pi "ffefiV riKey changed colbuir. > in a few ca-sels customers who had , ’been s! rib £IOO bags p’f'silver 'write indig-' fniii’t’y to say that -all the'-tolvrir had cu roded together and turned,, 'green; into x-he bargain. 'Unless something could be don e Billingsgate’!TbokeiT like having to cease business,’ "since good ccih-s ifbat come in'were going out’‘ba-re-iy aisable,. And ii-ts' banknotes" '. were w-ireri. ’. 1 Accordingly, the East-cheap bank, which stands witlhin smell ref the Market, ..barely 50 yards. away ; _ a. lit.-.wing pan, washing soda, special stoves which would keep threepenny bits at bay while letting scales escape, and sacks of drying dust. Every evening, until recently, a couple of ’ hundi'riri-wriig|y:riof' : ' ; ¥ l to.fetak-; blfei Billingsgate silver would be., dep sited in this room, and early next hire riling, tan y ,assistant and would start"' 1 boilirig it, portion ‘■‘ by -port in', stiitong. it >»uud an 61- assorted fish, and l'iftS-hg -it ; M the spefeiah-sieves; After' the drying pi'bbtos'it-baiue- out sobrilliant that fce- iu every coin,” as the chief l'umderer is fond of boasting. 'ln phis way, . the bank that took, in tin dirtiest coins 'in' ‘Laiid-on -'Tiad the .br 'ghtest to pa-?s- : 'onj ■•biitT ahvbys after an •’unexplained dilayv, nfri+fr wf ''

But modernity is now.-threatening th r f uiouG washing. “Something is com iiig* -Over these Billingsgate merchants,' tli.V qhief lauh'de- er ’ [ c 'lns are getting twice" as cleaih a ■fell used to be. Why;' (toe' mfrtil n-ovf clan's- his silver specially 'before" he* sen-cls it, to;Saye- /its' hh<? trohb’e- ;• and one,.-, seldom sees the old amount oi geitihattadhed -fish pn anybody's f pQins “Besides, we have taken- to -packing them in paper bags, which prevents them from sticking together a-n,d turning grehn rls tWy did'in th&'old’- Srfckst But all the same, old-fa'h'oned BBhhgSi gate silver still turns up, and then w »tmst the stewing pan C «But nearly all the" : Bi’ln>gsgatc .banknotes —and come are smeary with fishvslim-e —jmst go direct to the Bank of 'Kmgland for destruction.” , .