Ratweasels: in ur wallet dilutin ur curr & C

[ailbhe]

I have been saving up my spending money for a wild weekend spree, and I took out my hoarded coins this evening, handed them (a pound coin and a fifty pence) to Rob, and asked him to take Emer and go and buy biscuits. He had a quick look at the pound, which turned into a prolonged look, and I vaguely remembered a BBC News headline, and with sinking heart I said "Oh, no, is it fake?"

Yup.

I briefly tried to imagine a world in which I got to have biscuits anyway - no dice, even when I checked with Rob whose conscience is not as, hahahaha, tightly honed to "stun" as mine - and it's sitting on the table now lurking at me. Tomorrow I shall stop a policeperson in the street and give it to them.

Rob turned out his pockets and found money so now we have biscuits. Hurrah!

Comments

[gmh.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for biscuits!

(I've been rejecting dud pound coins from shopkeepers for about 2 years now; I actually noticed the rise in forgeries a couple of years back - odd, because I didn't think I looked that hard at money - I just got fed up with automated payment machines spitting dodgy pound coins back at me, so I got sharper on what I was given.

Needless to say, it's a way to make yourself unpopular with a lot of people quite quickly; shop people give you nasty looks when you point out that passing forged tender is illegal, regardless of the denomination.)

[ailbhe]

Yeah, I daresay I'll start shortly. I hardly ever *use* cash these days, though. I find it hard to imagine where I got this unless it was the post office when I got cash out for busfare...

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Wow, one in fifty? That's just harsh for the people getting them. :/

[ailbhe]

It seems incredible. But it's not, apparently.

Yeah, I really thought I wasn't going to get my junk food, and I was saaaaaad :(

[(Anonymous)]

How could you tell?? I don't think I could - I wouldn't know what to look for!
Diz

[ailbhe]

Rob checked against what he remembered from the article, which is that the two sides should be the same way up - of you hold it between thumb and forefinger so that the Queen is the right way up, and spin it 180 degrees, the other side should be the right way up too. This one gets that wrong, and the printing is *lousy*, and the lines and type around the edge are obviously wrong.

Once you actually stop and look at this particular one, it's obviously not a real coin, it looks terrible.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

Some of the better ones get that right (a lot don't); another telltale sign is uneven milling around the edge - around the middle of the edge of the coin, the milling is pretty much normal, but around the two edges of the edge, the milling is superficial at best and smooth at worst.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

I should also say: I've handed a few in to the police and their reaction tends to vary from mild indifferent acceptance to "who is this civvy and why are they trying to give me more paperwork?"

[caerleon.livejournal.com]

Alas, currency is fairly devalued in this modern age.. a piece of plastic says more about you than mere money ever can.. I mostly work on the barter system these days..