380 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



\ . (4.) Coining, or the making of money, 

 ::res alfo various knowledge, the union of 

 h forms a very complex art. The know- 

 : of all metals, their intrinsic and nuroerary 

 value, their nature, the degrees of their ductili- 

 ;he proportion they bear to the exchange, 

 their allay, &c. form the preliminary fcience o* 

 a good matter of the mint, who is not fo com- 

 mon a character as fome may imagine. He 

 muft likewife underftand the art of founding 

 metals, of forming them into ingots or wedges, 

 ducing them into planchets, or pieces fit to 

 receive the (lamp, and the manner of giving 

 them their proper imprefiion, either by the 

 hammer, or the mill. He mould alfo infpect 

 the refining, allaying, plating, graving of the 

 dyes, &c. There are but few good books 

 on this important fubject, or even on the feveral 

 articles of which it is compofed. 



VI. (n.) Mineralogy * or the art of working 

 mines, whether of metals, ftones, folfils, &c. 

 forms alfo an extenfive fcience, and one that is 

 daily improving by practice, and which prac- 

 tice men of ability now endeavour to reduce 

 into a theoretic fyftem, by thofe difcoveries 

 \\ they are inceflantly making of new prin- 

 ciples and new inventions. There have been 

 hitherto but few good books wrote on this fub- 

 ject : however, the directors of mines, and miners 

 themfelves, of all the countries of Europe, 

 readily communicate to each other their know- 

 ledge 



