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TABLE OF GOLD COINS TJJfWORN. 



Double pistole of Placentia 



Double pistole of Genoa, 1621 



DoubL pistole of Milan 



Single pistole of Milan - - - 



Single pistole of Savoy 



Double ducat of Castile, Genoa, Portugal, Florence, - 



Hungary, and Venice 



Single ducats of the same places - - 



Double ducats of several forms in Germany .... 



Single ditto - - 



Double Ducat of Genoa - - 



Single ducat of Genoa, Besancon, and Zurich ... 

 Pistoles of Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, Savoy, Ge. 



noa, Orange, Trevon, Besancon ...... 



Ducat of Barbary, with Arabic letters .-..,. 



Assay. 



ca.gr 



Weight.! Value. 



dw. gr. 

 8 10 

 8 16 

 8 13$ 

 4 6| 

 4 8$ 



4 11 

 2 5$ 

 4 11 

 2 5i 

 4 11 

 2 5* 



4 6 

 2 16J 



18 17.7 



9 3.8 



18 4. 



9 2. 



18 6,5 



9 3.2 



16 6.7 



9 3.5 



COIN, laws relating to. Counterfeiting 

 the king's money, or bringing false mo- 

 ney into the realm counterfeit to the 

 money of England, clipping, washing, 

 rounding, filing, impairing, diminishing, 

 falsifying, scaling, lightening, edging, 

 colouring, gilding, making, mending, or 

 having in one's possession, any pun- 

 cheon, counter puncheon, matrix, stamp, 

 dye, pattern, mould, edger, or cutting 

 engine : all these incur the penalty of 

 high treason. And if any person shall 

 counterfeit any such kind "of gold or sil- 

 ver, as are not the proper coin of the 

 realm, but current therein by the king's 

 consent, he shall be guilty of high trea- 

 son. 



If any person shall tender in pay- 

 ment any counterfeit coin, he shall, for 

 the first offence, be imprisoned six 

 months ; for the second offence, two 

 years; and for the th ; rd offence shall 

 be guilty of felony without benefit of 

 clergy. 



Blanching copper or other base metal, 

 or buying or selling the same ; and re- 

 ceiving or paying money at a lower rate 

 than its denomination doth import; and 

 also the offence of counterfeiting copper 

 half-pence and farthings ; incur the pe- 

 nalty of felony, but within clergy. Coun- 

 terfeiting coin not the proper coin of 

 this realm, not permitted to be current 

 therein, is misprision of treason. A per- 

 son buying or selling, or having in his 

 possession, clippings or filings, shall for- 

 feit 5001. and be branded in the cheek 

 with the letter R. And any person hav- 

 ing in his possession a coining-press, or 

 casting bars or ingots of silver, in imita- 

 tion of Spanish bars or ingots, shall for- 

 feit 5001. 



VOL. Ill 



A reward of 40/. is given for convict- 

 ing a counterfeiter of the gold or silver 

 coin ; and 101. for a counterfeiter of the 

 copper coin. 



COINING, the art of making money, 

 which has hitherto been performed by 

 the hammer or the mill. The first ope. 

 rations are the mixing and melting of 

 the metal, because there is no species 

 of coin of pure gold or silver but re- 

 quires a quantity of alloy. See ALLOT. 

 For gold coin the alloy is a mixture of 

 silver and copper, as silver alone would 

 make the coin too pale, and the copper 

 alone would give it too high a colour. 

 The alloy is used for the purpose of ren- 

 dering the coins harder, and less liable 

 to wear, or to be diminished by art. 

 When the geld and silver are completely 

 melted and mixed, they are cast into 

 long, flat bars, nearly of the thickness of 

 the coin to be cast. In coining by the mill, 

 which has been the only method in use 

 for the last 250 years, the bars are taken 

 out of the moulds, and scraped, brushed, 

 flattened in a mill, and brought to the 

 proper thickness of the species to be 

 coined. The plates, thus reduced as 

 nearly as possible to the proper thick- 

 ness, are cut into round pieces, called 

 blanks, or planchets, with an instrument 

 fastened to the lower end of an arbor, 

 whose upper end is formed into a screw, 

 which, being turned by an iron handle, 

 turns the arbor, and lets the steel, well 

 sharpened in form of a punch-cutter, fall 

 on the plates; and thus a piece is punch- 

 ed out. The pieces are now to be 

 brought to the standard weight by filing 

 or rasping, and what remains of the 

 plate between the circles is melted 

 again. The pieces are next weighed in 



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