XXVll 



Maclean, taken in connection with the laws and regulations which 

 formerly governed the coinage of tin, would throw considerable 

 light on the extent to which tin had been wrought in various 

 parts of the Stannaries at different times. The earliest he recol- 

 lected mentioned Chagford, Ashburton, Tavistock, and Plymp- 

 ton, as ancient coinage towns in Devon ; those in Cornwall being 

 Liskeard, LostAvithiel, Truro, and Helston. 



Mr. Smirke observed that at the time referred to in Mr. 

 Maclean's communication, Bodmin w'as one of the coinage towns, 

 with Lostwithiel, Truro, and Helston. Liskeard was not men- 

 tioned. 



The President added that the times anciently allotted for 

 the coinages in Cornwall were : at Liskeard two days ; at Lost- 

 withiel six days ; at Truro twelve days ; and at Helston six days. 

 At some subsequent period Penzance was made a Coinage Town, 

 the coinage there lasting two days ; and still later — in the reign 

 of Charles H, he believed — the time was extended to six days. 

 When he Avas appointed Assay Master in 1831, no inhabitant of 

 Chagford, Ashburton, or Plympton, had any notion that tin had 

 ever been coined at either of these towns ; and all recollection 

 that the coinages had ever been held in any other part of East 

 Cornwall than Liskeard seemed to have died away. It appeared 

 therefore that tin was anciently produced in very great quantities 

 in the eastern part of Dartmoor; that at a later period the 

 produce had almost, or altogether, disappeared there, but had 

 enormously increased in the western part of Cornwall. In 1835, 

 when changes Avere made in the Coinage Towns, it was no longer 

 necessary to hold coinages at Chagford, Ashburton, and Plymp- 

 ton ; but small quantities of tin^were still coined at Tavistock 

 and Liskeard, whilst Lostwithiel no longer required the privilege ; 

 at Truro, however, no alteration of time seemed necessary. 

 Helston was but slightly frequented by tinners, but Penzance 

 became increasingly important, and it was necessary to establish a 

 coinage at Hayle. In process of time, therefore, the produce of 

 Dartmoor and of East Cornwall had materially declined ; whilst, 

 at the same time, the mines of West Cornwall became increas- 

 ingly productive. 



On the reading of Mr. W. Copeland Borlase's account of the 

 Inscribed Stone at Stowford, Mr. Smirke said he was very glad 

 that this Institution had an opportunity of publishing an authentic 

 copy of this inscription ; inasmuch as an imperfect rubbing from 

 the original had been undecipherable by archaeologists in London 

 last year. Most of the inscriptions in the West which had been 

 deciphered are supposed to have been the work of Eomanized 



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