Saxon invasion of England, and throughout the octarchy; but none can be traced in their history before that event. From the laws of Ethelstan, it appears that the places at which public mints were established were (Wilkin's Leg. AngloSaxons p. 59) at Canterbury seven mynteras,' four belonging to the king, two to the bishop, and one to the abbot. At Rochester three, two of the king's, and one the bishop's. At London eight, at Winchester six, at Lewis two, at Hastings one, at Chichester one, and two at Hampton; Wareham, Exeter, and Shaftesbury, respectively. From Domesday-book, they also appear to have been distributed throughout all the large towns. It need hardly be added that these were evidently the small hammer mints first used, and not establishments quite of equal magnitude with that over which Mr. Pole now so ably presides. William the Conqueror seems to have adopted the plan of his coinage from France and the establishments of Charlemagne; he retained the Saxon pound weight or Moneger's pound as it was now called, and which is ascertained to have been a sixteenth, or 5400 grains less than the troy pound; and coined from it twenty shillings which made twenty-one one-third pounds troy. It was not until the reign of Henry VIII. (1526) that the troy pound was used at the royal mint. This we see was an increase of the Moneyer's pound, and it continued to be increased in successive reigns until the eighteenth of Charles II., when it was fixed at sixty-two shillings, and so continued until the recent alterations in 1816, which made it sixty-six shillings. The word sterling was originally applied both to the silver penny, and to the penny-weight, which was minted with a deep cross. When this was broken across it was called the halfpenny, and when into four parts, the fourththing, or farthing. Silver four-pennies were also coined, and called greats or groats. There were also distinct silver half-pence and farthings, but no shillings coined, according to Dr. Kelly, until the year 1504, in Henry VII. reign; and no copper money until 1665, in the reign of Charles II. The first gold coins on record were struck by Henry III. in the year 1257, and were called gold-pennies, weighing as much as two silver pence, and passing for twenty pence. Snelling says, this coinage took place through the king's 'necessity,' and that the city of London remonstrated against the measure. Our next gold coinage was that of the florin (from Florence, where a similar piece seems to have been first struck,) in 1354, called also abroad the guelder, or golden piece, and containing twenty-three carats, three grains and a half of fine gold, with half a grain of alloy. This was called the old standard, and continued until the minting of crown pieces in 1527, when the new standard, called at first crown gold, was introduced. It was enacted in 1266, 3 Edw. 51, 'that an English penny, called a sterling, round and without clippers, shall weigh thirty-two wheat corns from the midst of the ear, and twenty pence to make one ounce, and twelve ounces one pound;' 'eight pounds, it is added, do make one gallon of wine, and eight gallons of wine do make a London bushel, which is the eighth part of a quarter. Of the old gold standard, the principal coins were nobles, of 6s. 8d. value; half and quarter or farthing nobles, as they were also called; marks, of 13s. 4d. value; angels of 10s. and sovereigns of 20s. each. The last were first minted in Henry VII. reign, and frequently altered afterwards, until that of James I., by whom they were fixed at twenty-two carats, fine. The sovereigns of this reign were at first called unites, and thirty-three pieces and a half were struck from the troy. Charles II. first minted guineas (so called from that part of Africa from which the gold used happened at this time to be brought), and fortyfour pieces and a half were yielded from a pound troy. This coin varied in current value from twenty to thirty shillings, until the mint was placed under the care of Sir Isaac Newton; who in 1717 induced the government to fix it at twenty-one shillings. In 1816 took place the new gold coinage of sovereigns at the proper proportion to this guinea, i. e. of 46 pieces to the pound troy. Seignorage was irregularly charged at the royal mint for both gold and silver coins, until the year 1666, when it was enacted, that all persons bringing in either of the previous metals to be coined, should receive back the full va ue free of expense: a law still in force as to gold, but the silver coinage is now wholly managed by government; and since 1816, gold has become the sole standard measure of value without any limitation as to the amount that may be legally tendered, but silver coin is only a legal tender to the amount of forty shillings. Queen Elizabeth seems to have contemplated some reform in our coinage; she ordered the avoirdupois pound to be placed in the exchequer as a standard, and that a copy of the troy pound of goldsmith's hall should be accurately made and deposited in the exchequer, but no practical measure resulted from this. In the reign of George II., 1758, the first important enquiry of modern times respecting our coinage, was instituted by government. Mr. Bird, a distinguished optician and instrument maker, and Mr. Harris, the king's assay master of the mint, were examined, with several other able mechanics, by a committee of the House of Commons, as to the standards of English weights and measures. Their report demonstrates the great care and ability employed in the proceedings. Speaking of the relative claims of the pound troy and the pound avoirdupois, as a standard weight, they prefer the former Because' as the report states, it is the weight best known to our law; that which has been longest in use; that by which our coins are measured; that which is best known to the rest of the world; that to which our learned countrymen have referred, and compared ancient and modern weights; the weight which hath been subdivided into the smallest parts. On the other hand, the avoirdupois weight is of doubtful authority; and, though unfit to be made a standard, yet the frequent use of it renders it necessary to ascertain and declare how many ounces, pennyweights, and grains, troy, the pound avoirdupois ought through the foreign office, to his majesty's conto weigh.' suls abroad: This committee caused the inaccurate divisions of the mint standard to be corrected: the following is their account of this important operation Your committee thought it necessary, in the first place, to obtain, with the utmost possible exactness, standard weights of the several parts of the pound troy, in order that from thence such other combinations, or proportions, of weight might be formed, as the business or necessities of the subject should require. And Mr. Harris was employed to make these several parts, who accordingly did so, with great skill and attention, by a very curious and accurate apparatus contrived by Mr. Bird. It was adapted to five different beams, which ascertained the weights from twelve ounces, or one pound, down to a grain inclusive; and that with so great exactness, as to discern any error in the pound weight to the 230,400th part of the weight, and to the 2000th part of a single grain. By these beams, the several parts of the standard pound were examined and adjusted by Mr. Harris, in the presence of your committee, and were found to be what their denominations import. These several parts were tried in every progressive combination necessary to discover their proportions to each other; and appeared so exact, that no greater degree of correctness could, in the nature of the thing, be expected.' An authentic copy of this standard pound was delivered to the house of commons, and another to the king's assay master of the mint, in whose office it is still carefully preserved, with Mr. Bird's weighing apparatus. With this apparatus, the late comparisons of foreign standards have been made at the mint; but, it should be observed, that certain standards, which were too heavy for this beam, were weighed by a new hydrostatic balance of great accuracy, invented by John Barton, esq. deputy-comptroller of the mint. Before the general comparison was begun, it was deemed proper to compare the parliamentary pound with the exchequer standard; and, for this purpose, the latter was taken to the mint, by an order from the chancellor of the exchequer, where it was found to be one grain and a-half lighter than the parliamentary pound; and its divisions proved to be still more inaccurate. It should be observed, that lord Carysfort's committee intended to correct this standard, as appears by their report; but in 1760, before their plans were completed, parliament was dissolved, and thus ended their useful labors. Since that period no alteration has been made in the standards, though much attention has been paid to the subject, both in and out of parliament, especially since the adoption of the metrical system in France. The comparison alluded to between the English standard weights took place in the latter part of the year 1818, in the presence of the principal officers of the mint and the chamberlain of the exchequer. In the same year, at the suggestion of Dr. Kelly, of Finsbury-square, the lords of his majesty's privy council for coins, recommended the following letter to be despatched, COPY OF LORD CASTLEREAGH'S CIRCULAR TO THE BRITISH CONSULS ABROAD. ... Foreign Office, March 10th, 1818. SIR, 'His majesty's government, being desirous of obtaining every information as to the standards in use, for the various weights and measures in foreign countries, with a view to ascertain their relative bearings to those in use here, for the benefit of the commercial interests of this country: 'I am to desire, that you will use your endeavour to procure, with as little delay as may be, two sets of models, being counterparts in every respect, of the standard pound or mark used at your place of residence for weighing gold and silver, and also of other lesser weights used for that purpose. If, in any place within your consulate, the standard pound or mark, with its lesser weights, used for weighing gold or silver, should differ from those in use at your place of residence, you will procure also two sets of the weights so differing. 'You will have the accuracy of all these weights regularly attested by the proper authorities. You will pack up carefully, and separately, these two sets of weights complete: and you will send them to me by separate conveyances, accompanying each set by an explanatory letter, written in duplicate. In that letter you will give a list and description of the weights sent. You will state the difference and proportion between the pound which is used for weighing gold and silver, and that pound used for ordinary articles, which is generally known by the name of the commercial pound. You will state the contents of the principal measure, used at your place of residence, and at other places within your consulate, for the measure of corn, and of the principal measure for wine, and also of their lesser measures. You will be so good as to describe the contents of these measures, by stating how many cubic inches of the place they contain, or how many English gallons, or how many French litres. 'You will add in your letter such other information as you can collect, or may be in possession of, for throwing light upon the general subject of this instruction. You will keep an account of the expense to which you may be subjected in the execution of this instruction, and you will send such account, made out in duplicate, in a letter marked separate, which letter and account may accompany the weights, and the dispatch explanatory of the subject. • To 'CASTLEREAGH. his majesty's consul at quired standards, very ample specifications of the divisions of weights and measures. They were first delivered at the foreign office, and thence sent by Joseph Planta, esq. under secretary of state, to the royal mint, through the medium of the board of trade. In the beginning of the year 1820 the intended comparisons were carried into effect. These experiments were made by Robert Bingley, esq. who had assayed the coins, as before stated, and who, on every occasion, evinced the most zealous attention to scientific accuracy. Dr. Kelly attended this course of experiments at the mint; and, having registered the results, obtained permission to remove the standards to his house, with a view of having the comparisons repeated; and, as a farther means of verification, to compare the subordinate weights or divisions, the units only having been compared at the mint. This second course of experiments was made with a fine balance, recently constructed by Mr. Troughton for the London institution, and with attested standards, both French and English. These comparisons, which were repeated by several competent persons, proved highly satisfactory as corresponding with the mint experiments. Dr. Kelly has constructed, from the experiments, the various tables of coins which we shall now offer to the reader; and for the use of which the proprietor of this work has been very happy to transmit to that gentleman a considerable remuneration. We have had the pleasure of inspecting some of those contributions of our consuls, and of a liberal and powerful government, to the pursuits of science, in Finsbury-square TABLE I. AN HISTORICAL TABLE OF ENGLISH COINS, Shewing the alterations they have undergone from the reign of William the Conqueror to that of George IV., with respect both to their weight and fineness. Also, a statement of the comparative value of gold and silver, at different periods. By the above table, it appears, that silver coins have been diminished in value, during the last 500 years in the ratio of ninety-nine to thirty-two, and gold coins nearly as three and a-half to one. It may be remarked that, within the same period, the silver coins of France and Spain have been debased in the ratio of about seventeen to one. TABLE II.-NEW TABLE OF GOLD COINS. Containing the ASSAYS, WEIGHTS, and VALUES of the principal GOLD COINS of all Countries, computed according to the Mint Price of Gold in England, and from Assays made both at London and Paris, which have been found to verify each other. The London Assays have been made by Robert Bingley, Esq. F. R. S. the King's Assay Master of the Mint, and those at Paris by Pierre Frederic Bonneville, Essayeur du Commerce, as published in his elaborate work on the Coins of all Nations. Pistole, new B. 1 2 2 52 9 14 52,99 4,34 W. 0 2 4 7 4 4 18 92, 5 16 4,45 Genoa.. Doppia, or pistole (pieces of 2, 4, &c. W. 0 11 4 714 5 14 93, 4 16 6,36 in proportion) Sequin Genovina of 100 lire (, &c. in prop.) Ditto of 48 lire (pieces of 24 and 12 in Hamburgh Ducat (double in proportion) Hanover George d'or |