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១។ ភ
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Government Cash are equal to one Dollar, the Proclamation in this respect as all others has been a nullity.
Until very lately, however, a coin fully equal to that specified in the Proclamation has passed in the Colony for a dollar in consequence of the large quantity of spurious Cash which has been in circulation throughout China for years, notwithstanding the strong measures taken by the Government to suppress the illicit manufacture of it, by awarding death as the punishment for forging.
The established rule amongst Native Cash Keepers of the Colony until lately has been to accept cash in payment, provided each string did not contain more than a certain number of forged cash - the proportion I believe was generally about two thirds Government cash to one third bad cash, but sometimes the proportion of the bad cash was one half and even as high as seven tenths. Which I forward by name & "current specimen of Cash" and from 1,200 to 1,300 have usually been considered equal to a dollar. The forged cash have however been gradually deteriorating in quality, and at last became so bad, owing to the operations of a gang of forgers who established themselves on the opposite shore of Kowloon that