246 



session^ authorised the Lords of the Treasury to commence 

 immediate preparations for the issue of a new coinage, and 

 placed in their hands the superintendence and direction of such 

 Mints as his Majesty should erect for the greater ease of the 

 remoter parts of the kingdom. 



The towns selected for the estahlishment of provincial mints 

 were York, Bristol, Chester, Exeter and Norwich, and in the 

 month of May 1696, an order was made by the Treasury that 

 persons should be properly instructed, and sent to take the 

 management of the mints at those places. Early in June the 

 requisite offices were fitted up, clerks employed, and the opera- 

 tions of the mints commenced ; mills, presses, dies, and other 

 implements of coining, being provided from the Tower mint.^ 



The York mint was set up in the Manor, under the superin- 

 tendence of Francis Wyvill Esquire, as local mint-master.^ The 

 number of dies sent from the Tower for the use of the mint at 

 York, was 146 for half-crowns, 190 for shillings, and 107 

 for sixpences.* 



By an order of the Treasury made on the 2nd of July 1696, 

 the country mints M'ere authorised to receive dipt money and 

 plate until the 4th of November following. The quantity of 

 dipt money received at the York Mint during this interval was 

 212,410 oz. 10 dwts., and of plate 36,485 oz. 2 dwts., and the 



1 7. & 8. Wm. III. c. 1. 



' I have obtained mucli information illustrative of tliis part of my notices, 

 from an unpublished pamphlet in the British Museum, entitled " Brief memoires 

 relating to the sUver and gold coins of England, with an accoimt of the cor- 

 ruption of the hammered moneys and of the reform by the late grand coinage at 

 the Tower and the five country mints in the years 1696, 1697, 1698, and 1699. 

 By Hopton Haynes, Esq., Assay Master of the Mint, 1700." Lansd. MS., No. 801. 

 folio. 



3 Francis "Wyvill Esquire, usually called Major "Wyvill, was the second son of 

 Sir Christopher "Wyvill of Constable Burton Baronet. He was receiver-general 

 of the land-tax for Yorkshire, Durham, and Northimiberland. He died on the 

 22nd of October 1717, in the 71st year of his age, at his residence in Blakestreet, 

 and was buried in the church of St. Michael-le-Belfrey ia York. Eborac. p. 341. 

 " Towards Blakestreet where the church of St. "Wilfnd stood, the late Major 'Wyvill 

 built a fine house." Ibid, p. 337. This house is now occupied as offices by Messrs. 

 Eichardson and Gutch, Solicitors. 



♦ Haynes' MS. p. 186. 



