Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1912-03-21
CORNERS IN COINS
Odd Schemes That Were Worked
by Willy Operators.
CLEVER RUSE OF A NEW BANK

Il Won the Good viii Of the Town by
"obIigins" Its Citizens After Corner
ing All Its Metal Money-A Russian
prophet" Who Made a Rich Haul.
There have occurred from time to
time In various countries all manner
of corners In coins. traceable to all
manner of queer origins
Some years ago an individual named
Peterson esta blished IN n boom" town
of new state II bank that was
branch OF II larger institution else
where. AS. fol SprCia reasons, the
people of the new town would have
nothing TO do with the new bank the
outlook for Peterson was II gloomy one
After reelection he hit upon II happy
expedient He sent out men commits
stoned to go to all the stores of the
place to get change for grccnbacks and
banknotes In n little while he had
all the coined money In the town, the
result being. Of course, that the good
people of the coming metropolis were
flush Of greenbacks, but had no
Change"
Some one suggested that Peterson's
bank might possess some of the coined
pieces, and accordingly rush was
made there. where every one was
obliged with silver The ruse Of the
willy Peterson had the desired effect.
as the next morning his bank was filled
with depositOrs.
Superstitltion has frequently been
the basis OF corner In coins of n par
ticular denomination. A remarkable
case OF this kind occurred In southern
Russia In 1908 There appeared at
Berdiansk. on the sen OF AZov, a per
son proclaiming himself n prophet. and
as such he announced his intention of
redeeming the world Among the
queer doctrines advanced by this indi-
vidual was included the decree that all
his followers must retain all Ave ko-
peck pieces issued In the year 1861. the
year of the emancipation Of tho serfs
They were by reason of that event
held to be holy.
II was not long before the ignorant
peasants In the vicinity became con-
WINGED that all pieces of that denomi-
nation should be taken to the prophet
for preservation. The heaven sent one
further announced that should the
fatherland get into difficulty every one
Of the coins In question would turn to
gold" and thus save the empire
And 10 II happened that over an
area OF 300 miles Russian peasants
were feverishly collecting the holy
pieces and turning them over to the
prophet. When he had gathered a
goodiy number Of the coins he de.
camped.
In way the Russian government
may DO said to corner Its own coins
Of one denomination. Each year Il
mints a limited number Of bronze
pieces Of the nominal value Of one.
fourth OF kopeck. about one-eightb
Of a cent AS these coins IRE practi-
cally not In circulation. only few
are Issued,
It Ii really an easy matter In small
towns to corner particular coin. At
Welsh holiday resort members of
the local band became 40 indignant ut
the large proportion of halfpennles In
their 'silver collections" that they
locked up every halfpenny received
The consequence was that In few
weeks there was hardly halfpenny
In the town. Then the band reaped
harvest Of coins Of higher value
Cornerlng gold coins demands n
capital that few men possess Some
years ago. however. at Dieppe there
occurred a sudden scarcity of ten
franc and twenty franc pieces due to
the operations OF an eccentric British
or, who for some cryptic reason had
the day before changed several hun
dred banknotes of high value into
gold. Laden with the coins, he left
for Paris. and week elapsed before
the town regalned its normal amount
Of gold
An attempt to corner the Maria
Theresa dollars, used In parts OF north
ern Africa, collapsed by reason OF
queer circumstance. An Ahyssinlan,
Ras Makoppo, conceived the unique
scheme of collecting all specimens of
these coins extant In his district As
they were old coins he reasoned they
would rise In value. When he had
possessed himself OF about 5000 OF
them he found that the country was
az well supplied with them as before.
While he had been busy collecting
the old coins modern Maria Theresa
dollars made In Germany. were being
imported by the thousand The result
was that the coin fell In value, and
the too astute chief lost half his
wealth New York Herald.