No. 136

I forwarded for the inspection of the Lords Commissioners of the
Treasury the specimens of the 10 and 20 dollar pieces which you propose
to issue from the Government Assay Office in British Columbia, and which
were enclosed in your despatch of the 10th of May No. 24.

Their Lordships have apprized me that they see no objection to the
device of these Coins: but they think it advisable that you should be
informed of a fraud that has been discovered in this Country in the case
of the United States Double Eagle.

On melting some of these coins at the Bank of England it was found
that, by an ingenious contrivance, the coin had been cut in half
horizontally and rejoined, after the removal of gold from the inside,
and the substitution of Platinum, so as to restore the weight and
substance of the Coin.

It is obvious that a fraud of this nature could not be readily
perpetrated with a thinner coin, and it would therefore appear advisable
that the thickness of the proposed Gold pieces should be reduced.