NEW FRAUDS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2032, 3 July 1885, Page 2

NEW FRAUDS.

During tho hearing of a charge of obtaining money on an article which was represented to bo gold, but which, after, several trials, proved to be of bais in the Bow Street Police Cfiiiri, London, it transpired t!\at.c.o'vinterfeiting had made extraordinary progress of late. One of the solicitors engaged stated that his clients had 110 desiro to retain the necklet, but that they hatj deemed it their duty to stop, it in the interest of the public, who are at moment in course of being defrauded to a very largo extent by a spyrigus metal, palled It \\as that » gang ot men had recently pie do\yn to' Brighton, where in a few they had cheated pawnbrokers and others of more than one thousand pounds, The necklet wasmade of a composition called "mysterygold," consisting of copper, platinum, and tin—gilt on the outside bythe eiecfcrq pro,(:ess—which will jtand the test of nitric acid, and. is qf the same weight with genuine gold. The legal representative of one of the

parties pifqrmed magistrate that a large number of spinous soYefejpainado of" mystery gold" are hqw |n circulation: that they had tho gamp weight as the precious metal Itself, and the same rine; when dashed down upon the counter or table; and that they mo capable of resisting the usual tests appliod to them, He asserted that a large uody of conspirators are now employed In the manufacture of this ingenious counterfeit for purposes of fraud, and that by it the public has already been defrauded to the extent of thousands of pounds. Nor is gold the only metal for which a spurious substitute is now in course of preparation. A fluid described as a "mystery detector," which exposes the difference between this fraudulent metal and real gold, has recently been invonted. It is stated that

silver, as well as gold, iB now being imitated as to defy the aquafortis test; and it is obvious that unless a detector

ran be discoverciHHflßßßßffl its operation, coins or articles of nHHH applied, there is danger that the foreign countries. with counterfeit soverflßHHßHß is more widely over the surface of theHSKHBH has caused quite a pawnbrokers state thatSHnHBH mystery gold and silvaHßHraH been offered to them." WHBhSS