Money and Moneyers. 409 



a commission was issued by Philip and Mary to Sir Edmond 

 Pakhain, High Treasurer of oure Myntes within oure Tower of 

 London." During the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward 

 VI., while there were certainly two or three mints in the Tower 

 there were two others without that fortress. One of these was 

 " in the Manor of Suffolk House, in the Borough of South- 

 wark," and another " in Duresme Place in the suburbs of 

 London." The site of the first has since attained, and, to a 

 certain extent, maintains an unenviable character, while that 

 of the second is occupied by Durham Street, Strand. 



Each of these distinct mints appears to have been presided 

 over, and worked, by a single officer with workmen under him, 

 and these were the monetarii before alluded to. From the 

 seventh to the thirteenth century, as the coins of the inter- 

 vening time abundantly testify, the practice prevailed of 

 stamping on each coin the name of the minter, above the name, 

 or emblem, of the place of mintage. Little, however, is actually 

 known of the minters, or monetarii, except that in the Anglo- 

 Saxon and Anglo -Norm an laws and ordinances they were the 

 only persons from whom penalties were exacted for debasement 

 of the coinage. The position of these money makers in society 

 has been much discussed, but it is pretty plain that they were 

 servants or attendants of the king or prelate, who accompanied 

 their master, and struck money for his use when required so 

 to do. They were certainly in close dependance on the king, 

 had houses or apartments rent free while at work for him, and 

 were obliged to get their dies from the Crown Die Office. 



A.D. 1132-1185 seems to have been the epoch of a 

 systematic identification of the Mint with the Exchange, in the 

 persons of their respective officers, the minter and the ex- 

 changer — the latter being the person appointed to exercise 

 the prerogative monopoly of ' c exchanging," that is, of bullion, 

 and coin dealing, and broking. The writ of the same date is 

 further worthy of remark, from the fact that it implied that 

 the whole country had been mapped out into comitatus — coun- 

 ties or districts — to each of which its own minter, or mint and 

 exchange had been assigned. 



This was the epoch also of the first step towards a con- 

 solidation of the exchanges and mints, namely, of the con- 

 solidation of their accounts, so far as the profits of the Royal 

 Seignorage were concerned, by the appointment of a single 

 accounting officer, known as the keeper or warden. It 

 appears to have been the earliest date of the triple or- 

 ganization of the Mint — two other departments now being 

 named as checks upon the master. One of them was repre- 

 sented by the warden, and the custos cuneorum, or keeper of 

 the dies, and the other by the king's assayer and the " trial 



