THE shortly-reported case belongs to a long lost era when Southampton, befitting its status as the gateway to the continent, had consuls from the old and new world.

In 1855 the Prussian vice-consul, Lewis Vandenburgh, played a prominent role in bringing a forger to justice for making three counterfeit Bank of Poland note and possessing 350 more.

The arrest of Hiam Lipschitz followed a series of meetings in his office between the official, Supt.William Leggett of the Southampton Borough Force and a man called Martin Levin who the criminal tried to recruit and wanted him go abroad as an important link in the chain.

“He told me he was into circulating notes,” Levin told Hampshire Assizes. “I declined but I told him I knew a Dutch captain who would take them.”

Lipschitz’s fate was sealed by a letter which Levin produced in court.

It read: “Friend, I send these three rouble notes. See that you not be blundering and incautious and deceive yourself; you cannot deceive me. Send me the ten rouble paper, be a man and it would do you good, and you will be well off. The things produced are the same.”

Convicted on both counts, Lipschitz was ordered to be transported overseas for ten years.