C O I 



Coimbra. amount to 2000, and others even to 8000. The students 

 'Y*""' are distinguished by a particular dress, but live, as with 

 us, in private houses, and not within the walls of the 

 university. 



The museum contains few remarkable specimens ; but 

 the collection of philosophical instruments is excellent, 

 containing many of English manufacture, entirely new. 

 IH mechanics it is very rich, but extremely poor in elec- 

 trical apparatus. The chemical laboratory is capacious, 

 and well furnished ; containing, besides the objects ge- 

 nerally found in such establishments, a pneumatic appa- 

 ratus, and a collection of chemical preparations accord- 

 ing to the new nomenclature : it is likewise provided 

 with a collection of chirurgical instruments. In the li- 

 brary the number of volumes is considerable, comprising 

 many of the most valuable modern publications. The 

 observatory, which stands in an excellent situation in the 



719 



C O I 



upper end of the town, is very convenient and neatly ar- 

 ranged ; but very deficient in instruments. The botanic 

 garden, though not large, is admirably regulated, form- 

 ing almost an exact counterpart to the garden of Paris. 

 Besides many exotics, it contains a considerable number 

 of plants indigenous in Portugal. In short, the institu- 

 tions in the university of Coimbra are far from being 

 contemptible ; nor are its professors deficient either in 

 genius or learning. But the difficulty and the danger of 

 publishing, in a country where every work must be print- 

 ed at the expence of the author, without any prospect of 

 recompence, and where the inquisition reigns in all its 

 terror, repress all their exertions, and retard the progress 

 of literature and science. West Long. 8 23' 45", North 

 Lat. 40 12' 30". See Link's Travels in Portugal. (X-) 

 COIN. See BULLION, CURRENCY, and MONEY. 



Comibra, 



Machiuery. 



Ot' hammer 

 mouey. 



Coining 

 ptew. 



Invention 

 ufihe 

 ..-,. 



COINING MACHINERY. 



(_,ofXlNG, is the art of making metal money, by impress- 

 ing on its surface such marks as will, at first sight, iden- 

 tify it to be the legal coin, issued by the government of 

 the country where it is current. The impression should 

 be so executed as not to be easily effaced by use, or imi- 

 tated by counterfeits, and that it should not admit of any 

 reduction from the coin without evidently disfiguring it. 



Coining among the ancients, and indeed by the mo- 

 derns, till within these 50 years, appears to have been 

 very rudely and imperfectly performed, by placing the 

 blai.k piece i-f money between two dies, or steel punches, 

 containing the design of the coin, and striking upon the 

 upper one with a hammer. This, which is called ham- 

 mer money, is alway imperfect, from the uncertainty of 

 placing the two dies exactly over each other, when the 

 blank mimey is between them ; and also from the impro- 

 bability of a man being able to strike a blow with such 

 force as to make all parts of the impression equally per- 

 fect. The hammer muney continued to be current in 

 England, until the reign of William III. although the 

 more perfect method of coining, by the mill or press, was 

 introduced from France, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 

 as early as 1562. The mill did not continue in practice 

 more than 10 years, when the hammer coinage was re- 

 turned as being le-g expensive. Before the hammer money 

 was called in by William III. the English money wa in 

 a most wretched cond.tion, having been filed and clipped 

 by natives, as well as foreigners, until it had lost nearly 

 half us value. The milling upon the edges of coins ws 

 introduced about this period, (William III.) and such 

 confidence was then placed in this new device, that it was 

 deemed impossible for the coin to be diminished, by clip- 

 ping or wearing. It was, however, soon discovered, that 

 milled money, either of gold or silver, could be diminished 

 with great facility and expedition, by a process termed 

 rtocattltg, which was effected by disolving a portion from 

 the whole surface of the coin, by an acid, without leaving 

 any evident marks of the fraud. The money was also 

 filed on the edgr, and a new milling afterwards impressed 

 upon it, by methods which were soon discovered, not- 

 withstanding the great caution taken by the government 

 to keep the process of milling a profound secret. 



The coining press, or mill, is of French origin, and is 

 generally ascribed to Antonie Brucher, an engraver, who, 

 iu 1J53, first tried it in the French king's (Henry II.) 

 palace, at Paris, for the coining of counters. It con- 



tinued in use till 1585, in the reign of Henry III. when Coining 

 it was laid aside on account of its being a more expensive Machinery, 

 method than the hammer coinage. Queen Elizabeth, as we S ~""V~~ 

 before stated, had a coining press very soon after its first 

 invention, but she soon gave it up for the same reason 

 as the French did. The machine remained in disuse un- 

 till 1623, when Briot, a French artist, who was unable 

 to persuade the French government to adopt it again, 

 came to England, where it was immediately put in prac- 

 tice under Briot's direction, who was appointed chief en- 

 graver of the mint. Like most other new inventions, it 

 was sometimes used, then laid by, and the hammer re- 

 sumed during a period of 40 years. But under Charles 

 II., in 1662, the use of the press was completely establish- 

 ed in the English mint, as it had been by the French, in 

 164-5 ; and from the improvement it has made in the neat- 

 ness and perfection of the coins struck by it, there is no 

 danger of its ever again falling into disuse, especially as 

 the admirable improvements made in it by the late Ma- 

 thew Boulton, Esq. have rendered it the cheapest possible 

 method, as well as the most perfect. These improvements, 

 which we intend to describe in this article, have been 

 adopted by England, Denmark and Russia, after having 

 being long used at Mr Boulton's works, at Soho, in coin- 

 ing copper, by contract, for many of the governments in 

 Europe ; for the East India Company, and the Ameri- 

 cans. By their steam engines, they work the presses for 

 cutting out the circular pieces of metal, and afterwards 

 by other presses both faces at once, with such supe- 

 riority of execution, and cheapness of workmanship, as 

 will greatly prevent clandestine imitation. By this ma- 

 chinery, four boys are capable of striking 20,000 pieces 

 of money in an hour, and the machine acts at the same 

 time as a register, keeping an unerring account of the 

 number of pieces struck. 



The coinage of England, from the time of William the Old me. 

 Conqueror until 1811, was wholly earned on, in the tni l of 

 Tower of London, by a corporation, under the title of . C I "' D ^ IS m 

 the Mint, consisting of a number of officers, each having 

 their respective duties in the different processes of the 

 coinage. The artizans or workmen were called the 

 Company of Moneyers, and did the work by contract. 

 See MINT. 



They employed four kinds of machines ; 1 t, The rolling 

 mill for laminating the metal to plates of a proper 

 thickness ; The cutting oat machine, for punching cir- 



