52. Mr. E. P. Smithasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that large number of pennies are being filed down, coated with some silvery metallic substance and passed as new cupro-nickel florins; that, under artificial 4W light, these are difficult to distinguish from the genuine coins; that their weight is so precise that Banks have been led to include them in parcels of weighed silver and/or cupro-nickel coinage; and what he proposes to do to prevent it.
§ Sir S. CrippsThe hon. Member has been misinformed. No instances of this fraud have come to notice in the last year. It it were practised, it should be detected with ease, for a penny weighs less than a florin and this difference would be increased by filing; it is appreciably thinner, has no milling on the edge, and has a different design. In reply to the last part of the Question, there are ample powers for dealing with such fraud, and the police should be informed of any attempt at it.