MILLIONS OF COUNTERFEIT COINS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 59, 3 April 1909, Page 4

MILLIONS OF COUNTERFEIT COINS

FORGED COIN'S WHICH ARE WORTH AS MICH Oil MOIIE THAN THE GENUINE. The unu-sual occurrence of a counterfeit coin bringing far more than the value H was originally intended to represent by its makers took place i'c cently, when a curious Spanish doubloon of Charles IV. of Spain, dated ISOI, wa, sold for .€l2 at a sale of old coins at the Collectors' Club in New York. The coin was of excellent workmanship. and there was really no striking difference between it and the genuine. But instead oi it being struck in gold it was composed of platinum of the purest quality, which had been gilded. The intrinsic value' of the Spanish doubloon in gold is just over €3. The platinum counterfeit weighs 120 grains, which, at the prevailing market rate, would give this piece an intrinsic value of about €3 10s.

I'latiauni was a favorite metal with counterfeiters sonir Years ago. when intrinsic valu,. was about 23s or 3U» an ounce. Many spurious ten-dollar _ and twv-illy-itolUti" I'liited Static pieces were tur.ied out, ehielly compoot-il of this metal. i'lii- coins nt Ureat Britain wen.' tampered with in tile sunn* lnanm-r. Spanish coins have been much fcited, perhaps iiH're than the coins of anv other country. I'.veu at the present time Spain is redeeming counterfeit tive-jKseta pieces. these eoins were made by private persons ami were equal to the regular Government coins U' point of iiiicness and weight, tile manufacturers lieing satislied with tlr. seigniorage or ditlercnce between th( face value «t the coin and its value in bullion silver. So difficult are these illegal dins to distinguish from the genuine that the t.overnnient has authori-ed their redeiiiption at bullion value. It is sail that but little distinction has been made in Spain between llie regular issues and the counterfeits, the two issue* being accepted freely everywhere, and it rs declared lliat it is not at all unlikely that a fair proportion of the (>00,000.01)0 five-]H'seta pieces held hi reserve by the Hank of Spain is made up of the counterfeit coin. Some Years ago when silver had a much higher value than at present a counterfeit Mexican dollar came into the-, possession of the Vnited State* assayis at the Philadelphia mint. Tliey assayed the coin and found it to be worth intrinsically about fis. It seems that the mine ironi which the counterfeiters got their metal produced silver that wasj verv strong in gold. Thus the forgev.s |o*t money bv making counteneils. j The average depth of the ocean is) 12,000 ft. i