Evening star., 1920-02-22
! PARIS. February II, 1890.

IF you cam get across the Franco
Swiss frontier with a bag of sill
yer coin-say $4oo worth of
French franc pieces-you can buy
a 4o,oo0-mark. German automobile of
the best make, and furniture. toys.
fancy goods. etc, at the same figure.
The way it is done is this: Your
"$4o0 worth" means, of course, an
American check for $500 sold in Paris
for 10 francs per dollar Git has been
much higher), and it thus produces
you 1000 francs in current French
money!. e.. French bank notes and
fractional silver. Now you must
change all: the bank notes to silver,
put it in a bag and get across with
it to Geneva. In Geneva. where the
mark is current at 10 centimes, you
get 10 marks worth of German-made
merchandise for your Swiss franc;
your French silver passes at par.
And there you are. If you have a
chauffeur's license you can drive your
new 40.0o0-mark car home to the
hotel Immediately. Probably you can
York broker. but for this transaction
don't. The bargains are in Swiss
money or Latin-Union silver coin.
: Why your $400 American check, sold
at lis present small premium in a
Geneva bank, is worth only 1900
francs of Swiss money. SO it will buy
Z only half of that scrumptious German
made car. or parlor set, or silverware
looted in north Italy, or rugs stolen
in Belgium A Frenchman, with his
bank notes or checks, when he gets
into the occupied territory can pur-
oho0 Ihx- cd rot fol
only 1880 marks worth of German
autos. drugs or furs pillaged in Russia
for his 1000 francs-and we the
same-if we go via French exchange,
while in Geneva current French ex-
change gives slightly better. say g.
600 francs Swiss money. which, as I
explained before, will buy 10000
marks worth of ersatz.
k*
/. So there is no getting away from
it-you need the bag. And to fill it
with French, coin requires SO much
hustling or expense that before the
bag is flied you are liable to get
drunk and be run over by motor
truck, or have your clothes torn in
assault and battery, or land tp jail,
like those fourteen men in London,
on a charge of maneuvering against
the security of the realm. OF course,
you may get of. but profits would be
eaten into by lawyers fees, stamped
paper and cost of restaurant meals
sent into your cell while awaiting
bail.
The danger of. drink comes from
changing your French bank notes In
cafes The walters will always give
you silver. nickel and copper change
to make up 5 francs, and the rest Mn
5-franc bank notes. The fight comes
when you frmly refuse postage
stamps in shops. or try to buy up sill
Yer in bulk from street Car, car c4ndSEI pi,;
Jail turks with II.
You see, altthese fellows have their
own private customers for, all the
fractional silver they can can IA hay ;,,n;in hands
Which being the case, it would be
q waste Of science to tell you how to
get acrosg the French frontier into
Switzerland tor htos Spain) with the
bae
But IL you SHOULD manage to have
Q lot of Aiiyar coin in 1t, they would
sure take NewaS from you. :,
Nobody can get across the French
frontier with silver coin.
At nearby French resorts like d.
vonne, natives and sAnatorium board
ers obtain frontier cards." good for
q two-day trip into Switzerland and
permitting the bearer to carry in his
Cor herr poeket8 10 francs worth OF
change in silver and 100 francs in
French -bAAk notes. PARTIES OF sight
seers -lineer around the posts to see
automobile parties and entire train
loads searched for "the excedent"-
anything over. The eternal feminine
hides it down eternally in the eternal
safe-deposit bulge of femininity.
Tourists with a passport have
right to take out of France 20 francs
In silver coin and 1000 francs IN
French bank notes.
Now you see one reason why silver
coin 10 SO scarce in France-and Just
as scarce everywhere else In europe
except in Switzerland. Spain and q
few like sponges of humanity. (1t Is
not the Swiss, you understand, who
search you. The Bank of France can
print bank notes. commodiousfy and
cheaply. But to coin silver dollar
(Which Is likely to Immediately dis
appear) today CO, S1.'p in france
and about the same i'll Eli gland, even,
which h the gold and silver market OF
the world. At the recent new record
price of S21zpence per ounce, to which
I silver jumped in London. the silver in
shilling became worth something
more than Is Sd and the silver in half
a crown worth 3s / ID. These values
cannot, Of course, be legally realized.
because the laws in the various coun-
tries prevent the silver coinage from
being melted down or exported.
+ 4
So It has to be done illegally.
Every day, in both France and Eng
land. they are catching parties ped
ding and fences accepting silver bull
lion so imperfectly melted down that
outlines. dates. letters and devices of
coins are visible, here and there, on
this or that surface. 1t takes a lot of
heat to make silver as liquid as mo-
lasses. Only the competent and well
provided should attempt it. They get
there D. X.
Please do not think that it is bleed
>o0ENL