178 WEAR OF COIN. CHAP. XXIII. 



have the coinage of England for its basis ; but it 

 may be taken at a different time, when the pe- 

 culiar circumstances which existed when, after a 

 long period in which gold was scarcely in use, it 

 became again by degrees into general circulation 

 were not in operation. In the Appendix, No. 1, 

 B, is exhibited some experiments made by the 

 officers of the Mint, in April, 1807, the object of 

 which was to ascertain the deficiency of weight of 

 the average gold coins of the kingdom. At the 

 time the experiments were made, the suspension 

 of cash payments by the Bank had been main- 

 tained ten years. There had been, consequently, 

 a suspension also of the wear of the gold, for it 

 had almost all disappeared and could scarcely be 

 said to be in circulation. Between the suspension 

 of the payments in gold at the Bank in 1797 and 

 the date of the experiments in 1807, as very little 

 gold had been coined, that which was in existence 

 must have been of the coinage of years antecedent 

 to 1797- Before that year all guineas were scru- 

 pulously weighed, and what were found deficient 

 were withdrawn from circulation. Thus, in 1797, 

 a number of guineas taken from a banker's or any 

 other shop could not exhibit a fair average of the 

 wear of the mass of guineas, but only the average 

 of the wear of those which had not been reduced 

 below the current weight. To ascertain the actual 

 average weight of the whole mass it would be ne- 

 cessary to know how many pieces had been with- 



