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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
The wisdom of our ancestors is in few circumstances more conspicuous than in the jealousy with which they guarded the integrity of the Coins, and in the expedients which they adopted for that purpose. Their utmost care was exerted to preserve the standard inviolate, by assays made, within the Mint, in the presence of officers who were mutually checks upon each other: and before the monies were allowed to be issued, they were submitted to the public trial of a jury, composed of men who, by their professional knowledge, were well qualified to decide upon their purity, and who were bound by a solemn oath to return a true verdict.
page 165 note a Arbuthnot's Table, p. 8.
page 165 note b Du Cange sub voce Assaia. The circumstance there referred to is not noticed by Le Blanc, in his History of the French Money.
page 165 note c Madox, Hist, of the Exchequer, Vol. I. p. 291
page 166 note d Mint Roll in the Exchequer.
page 166 note e Pollett's MS. Notes on Conduit's Observations on the Trial of the Pix.
page 166 note f Answer of the Moniers to Blondeau, pp. 25. 27.
page 166 note g Pollett's MS.
page 166 note h Folkes, p. 100.
page 166 note i Ibid. p. 99.
page 167 note k Folkes, p. 60, note.
page 167 note l Roll in the Exchequer.
page 167 note m Id.
page 167 note n Answer to Blondeau, p. 27.
page 168 note o Mr. Conduitt. Pollen's MS.
page 168 note p By this term is to be understood the monies which have been coined within certain periods; and the pieces are thus set apart from the gross sum for trial.
From every journey, as it is technically styled, of gold or silver, two pieces at the least are taken at hazard, one for the private assay, the other for the public trial.
A journey of gold is fifteen pounds weight, a journey of silver, sixty pounds.
page 169 note q The trial pieces are in the custody of the Auditor and Chamberlains of the Exchequer, who produce them in obedience to a warrant which is directed to them by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. If the Master has reason to suspect that the trial pieces, which are specified in the indenture, are inaccurate, he has a right to demand that they may be compared with the indented standard trial pieces, which were made in the seventeenth year of Edward. IV. To these pieces, whose corresponding parts are kept in the Exchequer and in the Tower, the following certificate is annexed, which will show with how much solemnity these standards were prepared, and their purity attested.
The first day of July, the xvij. yere of the reigne of Kyng Edward the Fourth, Robert Hill, William Wodeward, John Kyrkeby, and Miles Ades, were sworen upon the hooly Evangeliste in the Sterre Chamber, before the Chaunceler of England, Tresourcr, and Pryve Seale, and many other noble Lords of the Kyng's Counceill sp˜all and temp˜ail, to make this standard of xxiij. carrats iij. greynes and an halfe of p˜fite fyne gold, and half a greyne of allay, acordyng to the old standard, as it appereth in the record in the Kyng's Chauncery and Eschequer of Kyng Edward the iijde and Kyng Richard the Secunde, Henry the iiijth, the vth, and the vjth, Kyngs of England. The which Robert Hill, William Wodeward, John Kyrkeby, and Miles Ades, have certified that this standard is truly made as is aforsaid.”
The certificate which is annexed to the silver agrees with the above, except that it ic stated to be of “xj. uncs and ij. penyweight of p˜fite fyne sylver, and xviijd weight of allay.
page 170 note r The remedies are wisely intended to compensate those unavoidable errors to which all human workmanship is liable. They are an allowance of one-sixth of a carat, or forty grains, in the pound weight of gold, and of two pennyweights in that of silver, considered either as to fineness, or weight, or both of them taken together.
The moneyers are, however, at this time so expert, that these quantities are much greater than are necessary.