CHAPTER XIX. REGULATIONS FOR THE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER. THE privilege of coining has in all ages and countries belonged to the Sovereign, and has, in England at least, been rarely delegated to any subject, and in any case in a restricted form-the Crown always reserving the right of determining the standard, denomination, and design of the coins. Previous to 1870 the responsible direction of the coinages of this country was entrusted to two controlling officers: (1) the Master and Worker of the Mint, and (2) the Deputy-Master and Comptroller. The former was bound by the conditions of Indenture entered into between the Sovereign and himself to cause the coins to be worked within the "Remedies," Remedies," or the limits of deviation, in either excess or deficiency, from the legal standards. In 1870, on the death of Professor Graham, the Master, and after careful inquiry, it was decided to entrust the actual administration of the Mint to the Deputy-Master; the office and title of the Master of the Mint to be held ex-officio by the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the time being, without salary. The services of a scientific officer were secured by the appointment of a Chemist of the Mint. The Coining, Die, and Melting Departments were made one operative department, and placed under a single superintendent, and under the new regulations the Hon. C. W. Fremantle, C.B., was appointed the first Deputy-Master and Comptroller. THE REMEDIES OF COINS. The remedies within which the coins are to be worked are: For Gold For Silver 12 grains in the pound troy, for weight. th carat in 24 carats, for fineness. These remedies remain virtually the same, but in point of fact the work is executed very far within them, as, for example, in the remedy for fineness the gold coins are not more than of a carat in the twenty-four carats on one side or the other of the legal standard. The coinage of gold is conducted for the public, free of all expense whatever to the parties importing or bringing gold into the Mint, it being open to any person to have any quantity of gold, of not less than £10,000 in value, wrought into coin, and redelivered to him, for standard weight of metal the same weight of coin, without the least charge. It is a popular error that because gold is coined under the superintendence of public officers, and the Crown, with the sanction of Parliament when any alteration is made, prescribes the standards and current values, that the gold coins are therefore issued by the Government. The fact is the Government coins no gold for itself; it, like any individual, procures its supplies, when wanted, from the Bank of England, which alone, for many years, has been the sole importer of gold into the Mint. No claim, therefore, can properly be made upon the Government (or indeed upon the Bank) to reimburse whatever loss arises from the wear or ill-usage of this coin. The Bank formerly deducted 24d. per ounce for light gold from the £3 17s 9d. per ounce for purchased gold to cover expenses of melting, assaying, and casting into bars for the Mint. But since 1870 the Mint undertake to receive light gold at £3 17s. 9d. per ounce, and return the same to the importer at the full Mint price of £3 17s. 10 d. the loss being only in the deficiency of weight. The nation chooses to have gold for its standard of value. The Bank purchase gold with their notes. The Government works it into coin free of expense, and the Bank issue it to the public in re-exchange for those notes, at a trifling advance of rate, by reason of the gratuitous workmanship, but which advance is barely sufficient to defray the expenses they incur. The loss which individuals suffer, occasionally from lightness of weight, must be considered as a trivial premium paid for the use of this money. The privilege of having silver, copper, and bronze wrought into coin is vested solely in the Crown. These metals are supplied to the Mint by orders of the Lords of the Treasury, and as from the higher prices or rates of the coins made from them than the market prices for the same metals, the working of them yields a profit to the Treasury. The coins of these metals, therefore, being issued by the Government, and not being the standards of value, are when much worn at occasional periods either called in, and new coins given for them, or, as at present, the same principle is virtually acted upon, by giving permission to the Bank to select the deteriorated pieces, and obtain those of full weight in exchange. THE TRIAL OF THE PYx. For trial of the weight and purity of the gold and silver coins of this kingdom, about once in three years the Lords of the Privy Council, generally on request of the Master of the Mint, direct the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ex-officio Master of the Mint, to issue a writ summoning a Jury of the Members of the Goldsmiths' Company of London to meet at the Exchequer Office in order to examine and report upon the pieces of coin which have been promiscuously taken (one out of each Journey-weight in every working of the Mint), and deposited in a box called the Pyx, kept under the custody of the Warden of the Mint, and which box has been brought for examination by order of the Crown. The finished coins are delivered to the mint master in weights called journey-weights. A journey-weight is fifteen pounds troy (901 sovereigns or 1,402 half-sovereigns) of coined gold, or sixty pounds troy of coined silver. The Jury having been sworn, receive their charge from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and proceed to count, register, and weigh the whole of the pieces of each sort of money, in order to ascertain what, if any, has been the deviation from the legal or standard weight. This done, the Jury proceed to Goldsmiths' Hall, taking a few of the pieces in order to assay the metals, by trying their purity against portions of the standard trial plates furnished to them at Westminster. Upon the accuracy of these trial plates depends the purity not only of our coins, but also of the manufactures of gold and silver throughout the kingdom; for, practically speaking, the term standard denotes rather an accordance in degree of purity with these plates, than the assumed perfectly legal mixture of the precious metals with their appointed alloys. When this operation has been finished they draw up in writing, and deliver to the Chancellor of the Exchequer their report or verdict upon the result of their investigations. There is no instance upon record of this verdict of the Jury of the Exchequer Pyx declaring that the coins of this kingdom have erred so much from their Standards as to be beyond the limits of the remedies. It is this favourable verdict which gives the Master of the Mint his quietus, and absolves him from the penalties of the Mint indenture, or from suffering fine and ransom at the will of the Sovereign. It constitutes a public attestation of the standard purity of the coins of the realm. From the several trials of the purity, from the numerous weighings in bars, plates, blanks, and coins, which the metal undergoes, and from the strict vigilance which is practised by the officers in all departments, the one checking the other, an extent of exactness is attained. which is without parallel, and which makes the "Remedy" a mere nullity. Notwithstanding the delays which these investigations necessarily occasion, such is the power of the Royal Mint that, on an emergency, 100,000 sovereigns can be coined in one day; and when more expedition can be easily and safely used, as in the coinage of silver, not being the standard of value, the number of pieces which can be worked is shown by the official statement that in 234 continuous working days there has been manufactured the enormous number of 57,960,936 pieces, being at the rate of 247,696 pieces, or 30,962 pieces for each of the eight presses per day. Before the metal is delivered to be melted it is first |