Fake Coins Embarrass The Japanese (original) (raw)
Business|Fake Coins Embarrass The Japanese
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/08/business/fake-coins-embarrass-the-japanese.html
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- Feb. 8, 1990
Credit...The New York Times Archives
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February 8, 1990
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Section D, Page
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Acutely embarrassed officials at the Bank of Japan and the Ministry of Finance acknowledged today that Japan's vaults hold at least $71 million in gold coins that no one - not even the central bank that minted the originals - had recognized as counterfeit until recently.
It is the biggest counterfeiting scheme ever to hit Japan, and one of the largest in the world. The coins were made four years ago to commemorate Emperor Hirohito's 60th anniversary on the Chrysanthemum Throne, which has only added to the officials' discomfiture.
Whoever was behind the scheme was not only talented but rich. Each of the counterfeits contains 20 grams, or 64-hundredths of an ounce, of pure 24-karat gold, just like the originals, and each carries a face value of 100,000 yen, or about 690atcurrentexchangerates.Thegoldcontentvalue,at690 at current exchange rates. The gold content value, at 690atcurrentexchangerates.Thegoldcontentvalue,at420 an ounce, is less than half that.
The Japanese authorities say they have identified 103,000 counterfeit coins, including a cache found in the vault of the Bank of Japan, the central bank. That means the counterfeiters stamped more than two tons of gold, and then made big profits by selling the coins at the large premium over the gold value Japan charges for the coin.
Police investigators believe the counterfeit coins were struck in Europe. A very small flaw distinguishes them from the original, but the police have not yet said publically what the flaw is.
''Frankly speaking, this incident has been a rather big issue within the ministry,'' Noriyasu Kobayashi, a senior official in the Finance Ministry's Treasury division, said late this afternoon. He and his aides scurried to brief a very unhappy group of top ministry officials.
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