MYSTERY GOLD.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1576, 20 July 1885, Page 3

MYSTERY GOLD.

AH London is alarmed and angry at the depredations of a gang of coiners who have found a means of palming off base coin, which defies the closest scrutiny. An amalgam of tin, copper, and platinum, electroplated with gold, produces a sovereign which is identical in weight and ring with the true coin, and defies the nitric acid test and the microscope. Cat into the metal, however, and no gold is fonnd. There is «mall douht that the country will soon be flooded with these spurious coinß, which it is almost impossible for anyone bnt a chemical expert to detect Operations are not confined to sove reigns only, for articles of jewellery are made, with which pawnbrokers have been victimised tight and left. It is stated that at Brighton a gang of men cleared over £1000 in a day or two, chiefly from the revelations which have been made in the Courts. Australian sovereings have come into great favour »?, from their colear, there is more trouble in imitating them. It is unfikely, however, that such clever rascats will not find a means of prodncings equally good representations of the Colonial coins. It is believed that silver can also be imitated so Mto defy the acid test There; will be an excellent chance of a fortune for the enterprising chemist who cau discover a compound which will easily and quickly detect this "mystery " gold. Imay be remarked that platinum is ».y no means a cheap metal, so that the cost of the counterfeits cannot be trifling. -