The story of Adolf Burger, a Slovakian Jew forced by the Nazis to produce counterfeit British banknotes, is utterly compelling. To a lesser degree, so is this statistic mentioned in the Times analysis accompanying a report of his visit to the Bank of England yesterday:
“Counterfeiters continue to ply their trade in Britain and are so adept at producing pound coins that more than one in 50 in circulation are fakes, according to reports released by the Royal Mint.
The Mint estimated last year that 33 million of the 1.47 billion pound coins in circulation are fake, a proportion regarded by one currency expert as dangerously high. Robert Matthews, who retired as the Queen’s Assay Master four years ago, said that South Africa had to redesign its five-rand coin after forgery reached similar levels.” Suppose it could be an excuse for the Bank to start printing some more money…
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