GIGANTIC FRAUD.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 29, 2 January 1884, Page 3

GIGANTIC FRAUD.

The Nelson Mail says :—“ We learn upon unquestionable authority that reliable information was received in New Zealand by the last mail to the effect that a forgery on an enormous scale, and one of which* we are likely to feel the effects in the Colonies, has been perpetated at Home. Our information is to the effect than 200.000 spurious sovereigns are believed to have been put into circulation lately in England. Some of them, it is stated, bear the stamp of the Australian sovereign, whilst those purporting to be English coin have the shield on the reverse side, whilst others have St. George and the Dragon. They are said to be so artistically finished and so heavily plated as to defy all add tests, and both in weight and ring they so closely approach the genuine sovereign as almost to defy detection. How the number has been arrived at or even approximated we are not in a position to say, but can only repeat that the source from whence we have derived our information is one that can be implicitly relied upon. If these sovereigns were all put into circulation at once, there can be no doubt that the forgers must either themselves be men of means or must be backed bv those who have money, for it is stated that each of the spurious coins contains gold to the value of is. 6d., which, without any additional cost of material or of labor, represents on the whole amount £75,000. On the other hand, it is possible that the issue has been a gradual one, and that with the profits on the first lot material was obtained for the second, and so on till the number stated has been reached. Such a statement as this to which we give publicity will of necessity cause no little uneasiness in the Colonies, especially among the trading community, who are liable to be victimised without, as it appears, the possibility of guarding against it, for that these coins will find their way out here in large numbers there can be no doubt whatever. At the same time, we ha\ felt it our duty to make the information public, in order that everyone to whom it comes may, at all events, be on the look-out.