98 



eminence cannot be found in this country, to place our coin in the 

 highest rank of the coin issues of the civilized world, we should look 

 for and employ its aid wherever it can be found. 



The above views are sustained by the usages of the mints of France 

 and England. In the former the original dies or matrices are pro- 

 cured by competition (concurrence), judged and selected by commis- 

 sioners appointed for the purpose; and, in the latter, since the late 

 reform, by competent artists selected for the purpose. 



Coining dies, it is evident to all acquainted with the subject, as 

 above described, can be procured by the services of mechanics of 

 good ordinary skill; and it is not necessary that they should be die- 

 sinkers by profession. 



It will not, I hope, be deemed irrelevant to introduce a {e\v remarks 

 on the mechanical relations and exigencies by which the devices of 

 coins are controlled, and which have a most important bearing on the 

 style and execution of them. 



It has already been said, and now repeated, that the coiner is li- 

 mited by the nature of the service, to a single blow of the press in 

 striking pieces of money ; it is important, therefore, that the de- 

 sign of the device should be so disposed as to give the strongest 

 effect with the least degree of elevation, not only for the purpose of 

 giving the utmost degree of legibility to the impressions on the coins, 

 and thus prepare them to retain their distinctness, during circulation, 

 to the longest period of time, but also to save the dies as much as 

 possible, under the severe usage to which they are subjected. 



Force and strength of expression in a coin are best attained by a 

 judicious outline in strong relief, whilst the general relief is kept as 

 much subdued as possible. In fact, the centre of the device should 

 not rise above a plane of which the outline forms the boundary. On 

 the contrary, if a device on coin rises in the middle it compels a re- 

 duction of the outline to faintness, producing a weak and unsatisfac- 

 tory effect, is hard to strike, is soon obscured by abrasion, and en- 

 tirely deprives the coiner of the opportunity of polishing the table or 

 plain part of the dies, and back ground of the coin, the first being 

 the usual technical term, a grave fault very often observed in what, 

 if otherwise executed, would be works of high artistic excellence. 

 The type of the species of relief alluded to, is found in the frieze 

 of the Parthenon, where strong shadows from a bold outline, give 

 the effect of depth by means well understood by the ancients, and 

 of comparatively easy execution. 



Tlic obverse of a coin should bear the strongest device, being the 



