The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-29
MONETARY PITFALLS OF PARIS.
How Tourists Are FIeeced in Making
Change.
Paris. Letter in New York Pre-!

| dFlSs Letter IN New Y OFk HftSS-
| In one of the best cafes on the boule-
| ward a Gus toner, to pay his bill threw
down gold piece. The waiter took 1t
| and held it between his teeth-a common
| though Objectionable habit-while hunting
! throuhg his pocket for the change. The
| oil was two francs. % confines. Forty
! nVe Csous) out of 10 francs, So and a piece
Of 100 sous he mumbled counting in sous
/ instead of francs and laying down five
| franc piece, two one-franc pieces, a 30
| centime piece and three coppers. But I
| gave you a 20-franc gold piece" expostu-
| lated the customer Pardon" said the
| walter; monsieur must be mistaken" He
| took the gold piece from between his teeth
| and laid 1t on the table. 1t was 10-franc
| GOLD piece. Now that's queer" said the
| victim. While he could not doubt his eyes
| ne much doubted the garcon, and few
days later laid a trap for him. With two
| friends for witnesses he handed the same
| waiter marked A-franc gold piece. The
| same thing happened. A 10-franc coin
| was sticking there between the fellows
| teeth. 1T won't do" they said, and pro-
| ceeded 10 make him disgorge. Out came
| a 2O-franc piece, too. II seems that this
| substituting trick had brought to him a
good income for months.
| The experience is typical of the Partisan
| tr-ckery in small money matters. 1t is
| The cafe walters, and the cabmen in par
| ticular, who make it a point to knock
| NSNf+ NbdAiEG, Dul lIie Wlltie DOPulEllOl
| continually is engaged in the great old
| game of getting rid of bad coins. In no
| otner city of the world is there anything
| ike such a proportion of demontzed ami
| non-current coins in circulation. Tour
| lists are the special victims Every one.
| who has to do with tourists keeps a stock
! Of bad uns" to unload upon their limo
| cence, No one. however, is free from this
| annoyance, and immunity from loss is paid
| for at the price of hourly vigilance. In
| Paris it is no insult to a shopkeeper 20
| sound every coin he hands you, one by
| one. The exposition visitor will do well
on the day of his arrival to request his
| hotel clerk to procure for him the handy
| PLAGUE of pieces a refuser" and pieces
| accepter," sold by newsdealers. Then
! until he has mastered it-a weeks work.
| let him accept no five-franc piece that is
not French or Belgian. But even full
| knowledge of the details is no protection
| against counterfeits as this trick may
| show: Take a good-sized potato and cut
| it in half Place the bad silver piece in
the middle and tie up the potato with a
| piece of string. Leave it over night. In
| the morning that greasy. leady look will
have disappeared, and If the counterfeit
| be of the average workmanship it will
| ring fair.
| The bad coin scandal of Paris undoubt-
| eddy is more than doubled by the generous
| and philosophic' device of the Latin
I
| of France. Italy, Switzerland, Greece and
| Belgium pass current in these countries
| interchangeab bly,. 1t is a beautiful thought
| to hasten the financial Millennium and a
| practical one to safeguard the proportion
| of gold to silver on the continent and yet
| its workings cause havoc with the for
eigner. The foreigner, finding the coins of
| so many foreign nations passing as if they
| We're French, decides at first that every
thing goes" in this happy country. Rude
| ly brought face TO face with the facts
| when he tries to utter English, Ger
| man and other silver, he becomes suspi-
| cious and refuses everything that is not
| French. This will not do, however, for he
| finds the coins of the Union thrust on him.
| When he begins trying to discriminate a
| whole series of exceptions rises to con-
| found him. He learns that Belgian nickel
| and the copper pieces of the other union
| countries are mo good" Italian fraction
| al currency has been made temporarily
| non-current in France at the request of
| the Italian government. All the one-franc
| and two-franc Italian coins were in dan
ger of coming to France with the balance
| of trade.
Little Switzerland, too, has her own de-
| monetized pieces THE sitting Swiss"-
| the goddess seated holding out an olive
crown-has been called out of calcula ton.
Good Swiss pieces have the lady standing.
| That these tired ones are Just worth
their weight in silver is a confusing dis
| covery 70 make, and all the more so when
| it is learned that the five-lire coins of
Italia Lbera"-with the goddess stand
| fns-do not pass. To make the confusion
| perfect, the tired Swiss" when on five
| franc pieces, as distinguished from one
and two-franc pieces, is really all right.
| She will be received in banks and large
| establishments, but such is the confusion
in the popular mind that the forlorn dam
sci Is turned down in all other dealings.
The demonetized Italian fve-franc pieces
| one finds everywhere in Paris call for spe-
cial erudition italia LIBERIA" the is
sues of king Bomba," Ferdinandus II.
Del gratla rex, the Sicilian coins of Fer
dinand l and those of Maria Lucia. Ouch
ess of Parma, the faithless second wife
OF the great Napoleon, are just worth
| their weight In silver In spite of the con-
fdence of the Latin Union On the other
hand, the fye-franc pieces of Victor EN-
manuel, Of Carolus Albertus King Of
Sardinia, and Carolus Felix of the same
although just as old and out of date, are
good Tor i've francs each. As for the Ital-
ian fractional currency so centimes one
frame and two-franc pieces, they are good
although you cannot pass them because
OF the temporary prohibition already re-
ferred to. Banks take them from their
customers at their face value, shipoing
them in bulk to Italy. The average
tourist, ignorant of this, gets rid of them
in tips, or "shoves" them Just as cvni-
cally as does the native
Even with real French coins there is
danger. BY a treasury provision for the
calling in of ancient pieces all fractional
currency issued previously to 1860 is de-
monetized. The mass of such 2-franc
1-franc and 50-centime pieces being of the
reign Of Louis PhiAppe-whose 5-franc
| pieces are stiu current-the unhappy tour
list wrestles pitiably with the distinction.
And where the demonetized French
ceases from troubling, counterfeit French
takes up the tale. Last week alone two
CONTRIBUTING gangs were broken up. The
brief note Of the news agencies in che case
OF The first of them is eloquent of the
| Partisan resignation to this evil.
False MOney.-Agent Blanc of the SUI
rete, yesterday morning arrested two
| counterfeiters in the act Of emitting false
pieces OF 5-francs of the date Of 1899 These
industrials are Gustave Becker 26 years
old, and Augusie Gombard, 81 years old
1t was on the denunciation of an accom-
plce, Leon Gayet, that the capture was