172 WEAR OF COIN. 



CHAP. XXIII. 



that is not the full legal weight. This was so 

 much the case that when gold rose so that a light 

 guinea as bullion was worth twenty-five or six 

 shillings, the bank refused to take it as money at 

 twenty-one shillings. 



It may be farther observed with regard to this 

 experiment of 1826, that those pieces which had 

 been coined but one year suffered a much greater 

 proportion of loss than thosje which had been 

 coined five years or nine years. Those of one 

 year old suffered a loss of one shilling and three- 

 pence, which in the ten years would be twelve 

 shillings and sixpence, whereas those of nine 

 years appear to have lost only at the rate of four 

 shillings and sixpence. It deserves also to be 

 remarked that the dirt accumulated on the pieces 

 is a better criterion of the length of time they had 

 been in circulation than the loss on weight. If 

 the period of circulation be measured by the por- 

 tion of dirt adhering to the pieces, the conclusion 

 from this experiment would be that the pieces 

 coined in 1821 had circulated more, if. not longer, 

 than those coined in 1817. The first were found 

 to have three grains of dirt to each hundred pieces, 

 and the second, though double their age, only 

 two grains of dirt to each hundred pieces. The 

 pieces which had been coined but one year were 

 found to have contracted dirt at the rate of more 

 than one grain and a half in that time. If then 

 those of nine years old had equally circulated, they 



