CHAP. xxin. WEAR OF COIN. 171 



nine years before, viz. in 1817, was at the rate of 

 four shillings and six-pence farthing on each hun- 

 dred pounds. If then it be taken as five shillings 

 for ten years, it will appear that one part in four 

 hundred only had been lost. It must, however, 

 be considered that the sovereigns though coined 

 had not been issued till the bank restriction was 

 removed in the year 1823 ; -that after that period 

 few or none had travelled into the country ; that 

 none were seen in Scotland or Ireland ; that what- 

 ever came into the hands of the country bankers 

 were locked up till a safe opportunity presented 

 itself of returning them to London ; and that even 

 in London the circulation" of one and two pound 

 bank notes was greater than that of sovereigns. 

 There seems to be a great difference in the loss on 

 a parcel of gold coin in London between that 

 taken in a retail shop and that received from a 

 banking-house. Thus by Appendix, No. 1, B., 

 it is seen that a given number of guineas in the 

 year 1807, collected in a retail shop, was deficient 

 one pound three shillings and fourpence per cent., 

 whilst those received at a banking-house were only 

 deficient eighteen shillings and eleven-pence per 

 cent. As the experiment at the mint was proba- 

 bly made from a number of sovereigns taken from 

 the Bank of England, they were most likely in 

 better preservation than what would have been 

 taken from a banking-house ; as the bank at all 

 times has been very strict in receiving no gold coin 



