ALCHEMIST'S GOLD. 815 



art ; the beginning of which is to lie, the middle to work, and the 

 end to beg ") have acquired considerable wealth, the source of 

 which it is hard to divine in any other way. M. Louis Figuier 

 has collated the stories of the principal of them in his " History 

 of Alchemy." I purpose in this article to describe some medals 

 which were struck from gold which was said to have been com- 

 pounded. I have seen one of the pieces, and tried to buy it for 

 purposes of analysis, but the holder would not sell it. Probably 

 an interesting collection might be made of such medals. 



In 1312 Raymond Lulle went to the British Islands in an 

 effort to induce Kings Edward III and Robert Bruce to engage in 

 a crusade, and promised to pay all the expenses of the expedition 

 by means of his art. King Edward, more concerned about 

 making gold than about going to the Holy Land, furnished the 

 alchemist with a laboratory in the Tower of London ; and there 

 Raymond, according to a declaration in his will, at a single opera- 

 tion converted fifty pounds of mercury, lead, and tin into " gold." 

 This " gold " was used in striking " rare nobles," some of which 

 weighed as much as ten ducats, and must, therefore, have been as 

 large as a French hundred-franc piece. Under the name of Ray- 

 mond's nobles, they have been much sought for by English col- 

 lectors. 



King Henry VI granted to several alchemists the right of 

 making gold and silver out of the base metals. The products of 

 their industry were probably used for coining the false money, 

 the emission of which provoked prohibitory measures from the 

 Scotch Parliament. Conrad Barchusen, a Dutch chemist of the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century, assumed that the " gold " 

 of Henry VI was obtained by putting mercury and sulphate of 

 copper in an iron crucible with a little water. The copper, set 

 free by the action of the iron, formed with the mercury an amal- 

 gam which, washed and pressed to drive out the soluble sub- 

 stances and the excess of mercury, gave on fusion a metal having 

 the color of gold, but lighter, and readily taking the impress of 

 the die. 



At about the same time, Bafbe de Cilley wife of the Emperor 

 Sigismund of Germany pretended that she had found the phi- 

 losopher's stone, in order to make her subjects accept an alloy of 

 copper and arsenic for silver, and an alloy of gold, copper, and 

 silver for gold. The alchemist Jean de Laaz solicited from her 

 the privilege of being present at one of her transmutations. He 

 detected the cheat, and was simple enough to reproach her 

 Majesty for having bungled ; and for this he barely escaped going 

 to prison. 



Jacques Cceur obtained from Charles VI of France, in consid- 

 eration of his possession of the secret, power to coin money of 



