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MINT 



applied for the transit of coals from the dip, but along the main level roads of the 

 mine, by means of endless wire ropes. The economy of steam-power has superseded 

 horses at many collieries. Steam-power can only be applied with advantage where 

 large quantities of coal have to be removed. 



If an engine-pit be sunk to a given coal at a certain depth, all the other coals of the 

 coal-field, both above and below the coal sunk to, can be drained and worked to the 

 same depth by driving a level cross-cut mine, both to the dip and rise, till all the 

 coals are intersected, as represented in fig. 1518, where A is the engine-pit bottom 



1518 



reaching to the coal a ; and b, c, d, e, f, coals lying above the coal a ; the coals which 

 lie below it, g, h, i ; k is the forehead of the cross-cut mine, intersecting all the lower 

 coals ; and I, the other forehead of the mine, intersecting all the upper coals. 



MIMTDIMC. Red oxide of load, obtained by roasting metallic lead or its carbonate. 



MINT (Saxon mynet, money or stamped coin ; Danish munt, mint, coin. The 

 word ' mint' is doubtless a derivative from mine, or, Latin, moneta, from the same root). 

 The place where money is coined by public authority." 



Minting or coining is the term applied to the processes employed in the manufacture 

 of money. It is proposed to describe the present mode of manufacture ; but it may 

 be as well to state, that in remote periods money was made by cutting out a piece of 

 metal somewhat of the form of the intended coin, and imparting the device to it by 

 the blow of a sledge-hammer. For this purpose the blank piece of metal was laid 

 upon a die, say the obverse, fixed into a block of wood or stone, supposed to have been 

 so large as to absorb the vibration caused by the blow, and to a great extent prevent 

 the quivering which would naturally arise, and cause unsteadiness. The workman 

 then took the other die, say the reverse, and passing it through a folded sheet of lead, 

 in order to avoid the shock to the hand, he placed the engraved part on the blank, 

 which was resting on the lower die, and held it firmly while another workman struck 

 it with a sledge-hammer. It is worthy of remark that a piece of lead such as that 

 described is in the Museum of Dies at the Royal Mint ; and although its surface, by 

 the action of the atmosphere and other causes, is now converted into carbonate of 

 lead, indentations caused by the tips of the workman's fingers are evident. This piece 

 is believed to have been used with a die of Edward IV. At a later period the upper 

 die was held in a twisted hazel stick. After each blow the dies were what is technically 

 termed locked together ; that is, the lower and upper dies were made to fit into the 

 partly-formed coin, so that neither die could turn without turning the whole mass, and 

 then a second or third blow was given, till the coin was completed. An improvement 

 on this method was effected by fitting the two dies into rods of iron, which may bo 

 represented as a pair of tongs ; the flat parts which are used to take a coal would then 

 show the position occupied by the dies. This plan saved the operator some risk of 

 bruised fingers, but the process was essentially the same as the original one ; and to 

 money produced by either means was applied the term hammered money, in contra- 

 distinction to milled money ; that is, money which was made from blanks obtained 

 from fillets which had been rolled in a very rough kind of rolling mill, driven by horse- 

 power the germ from which sprang the present machinery. On this point it is 

 perhaps of interest to quote a passage from the Report made to the Lords of the 

 Treasury in 1695 by Mr. William Lowndes, who says : ' All the moneys we have now 

 in England, both gold and silver, are reducible to two sorts, one stamped with the 

 hammer, and the other pressed with an engine called the mill. The gold or silver of 

 the hammered money is first cast from the melting-pot into long bars, those bars are 

 cut with shears into several square pieces of exact weight for sovereigns, angels, 

 crowns, half-crowns, shillings, &c. Then with tongs and hammer they are forged into 

 a round shape, after which they are blanched (that is, made white or refulgent by 

 nealing or boiling), and afterwards stampt or impressed with an hammer to make them 

 perfect money. This method of making money with the hammer (as appears in the 

 said red book) was practised in the reign of King Edward the First ' [the book referred 

 to is in the Exchequer] . . . ' and this kind of hammered money continued through 

 all the reigns of succeeding Kings and Queens till about the year of our Lord 1663, 

 when by several warrants and command of the King, Charles tha Second : to wit, by 

 one warrant, dated the fifth of November 1662 ; one warranty dated the eighth of 

 April 1663; and a third warrant; dated the twenty-fourth of December 1668; the 



