LOST-A MILLION POUNDS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 282, 8 June 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

LOST-A MILLION POUNDS.

In the bullion room of the Bank of England stands the " Grand Balance," a machine devised primarily for testing light gold coins.

Standing approximately sen-en feet and weighing nearly two tops, this wonderful piece of mechanism can weigh a piece of thistledown or a four-hun- »

dred-pound gold bar with equal facility.

Each time beforo being used it has to be carefully dusted; otherwise the dust settled upon it, even in the course of a few minutes, and though invisible to the naked eye, would cause it to register inaccurately. A postage stamp placed on one of the two weighing portions raoveg the index six indies.

After the new currency notes were issued the balance was kept busy practically day and night weighing the gold coinage called in. It ha? now been found that the total loss of gold, due to the abrasion of the coins in the course of circulation, amounts to nearly a million .pounds. This however, fe not quite so alarming as it sounds, for the loss is spread over a period of twenty-five years—from March 1892, that is to say. Twen-ty-five years is reckoned to be the legal '' life" of a sovereign at full face weight.