pieces in a box
ready for being pressed.

These last ribbons of metal proved to have been made from the base metal
ingots, after the old fashion of producing silver plate--before the
introduction of the cheap electro-plating system--by which the pure
metal is deposited upon the base.

Old silver-plated goods were made by taking a bar of copper and placing
at top and bottom a thin slip of pure silver, which was made to adhere
to the copper by heat. Then the silvered copper bar was passed through
rolling mills till it was flattened to the necessary thickness, and came
out with its due proportion of silver on both sides, ready for working
up into shape, with the addition of pure silver finishings to the parts
likely to be most worn.

The Clareboroughs' sovereigns were, then, thus made, careful analysis
proving that each ingot of alloy was prepared with the addition of
one-half of pure gold, that is to say, one fourth part at top and
bottom. This was fixed in the furnace; then the ingots were rolled to
the right thickness, the flats punched out, and afterwards passed
through the die press, to come out so perfect that for years these coins
ran current by thousands, even the banking companies receiving them
without demur, and it was not till long after that Chester discovered
that his two-hundred-guinea fee was all perfectly base.

The learned said the production of such coin was an impossibility, but
the Clareboroughs proved to them that it was not, and the Mint
authorities were puzzled by the perfection attained. But at last it was
remembered that about twenty years before, a very clever metallurgist
and chemist, who had held a high position at the Mint, was discovered in
an offence against the rules of the establishment, which resulted in his
immediate discharge and degradation, he having escaped a criminal
prosecution by the skin or his teeth.

This official had married a lady of the name of Clareborough, and it was
suggested by an ingenious personage as being possible that to this man
was due the manufacture of the base coinage.

The right nail was hit upon the head, for at the time when, some seven
or eight years earlier, the Clareborough family were, through their wild
expenditure, utterly penniless and hopelessly in debt, this man, after
many experiments, so advanced his project that he laid it before James
Clareborough, who jumped at the idea; his brother Dennis and cousin
Robert, both helplessly aground a