7 b' Automatic Weighing at the Royal Mint. 



Without pushing historical research further into the misty 

 atmosphere of the far-off past, it may be stated that every Act 

 of Parliament since the Parliamentary institution itself came 

 into being, and every Royal Proclamation passed and promul- 

 gated in England, for the purpose of legalizing coins of the 

 realm, has defined with great precision, though sometimes 

 rather verbosely, the standard weight, and the standard degree 

 of fineness, of each denomination of such coins. The law 

 makers and the monarch of the kingdom have, however, inva- 

 riably recognized the impossibility of producing coins in large 

 quantities of the precise legal standards of weight and of fine- 

 ness. A certain variation above and below those standards has 

 always been permitted, and this specifically as a " remedy" for 

 imperfection of workmanship. All Acts of Parliament and 

 other legal documents having reference to the manufacture of 

 money, are explicit as to the limits of this remedy. The gradual 

 improvements effected from time to time in minting machinery 

 and appliances, and increasing chemical knowledge, have 

 allowed of the periodical reduction of the remedy, and it would 

 no doubt be curious to trace out and note the changes and 

 modifications which have at various epochs been effected in this 

 direction. At present such is not the purpose we have in view, 

 interesting and instructive as the results of such a search might 

 prove. It must suffice, therefore, to say that, notwithstand- 

 ing all the mechanical and other advantages which the existing 

 Eoyal Mint possesses over mints of the olden time, it has not 

 been able to dispense with a " remedy" for imperfection of 

 workmanship. 



The varying density of the metals used in the manufacture 

 of coins is one substantial reason why perfect uniformity in the 

 weight of individual pieces cannot be obtained. The machinery 

 of that establishment is throughout excellent, and millions of 

 planchets of gold and of silver are continually being yielded by 

 it, which, if measured individually by means of the finest 

 micrometer gauge, would not exhibit the most infinitesimal differ- 

 ence of size. Placed in a delicately-poised balance, they would, 

 on the contrary, display material differences ; some would be 

 found above, and others below, the strictly legal and true stan- 

 dard weight. 



Absolute uniformity of weight among coins is a "Will-o'- 

 thewisp/' which no one who understands anything of the art 

 of coining would think of pursuing. The mere clasping of a 

 disc of gold between the thumb and linger on a summer's day 

 will alter the weight of that disc, as the test balances of the 

 .Mint hear evidence, and changes of temperature will produce 

 a similar result. 



It is not essential to examine further into the minute and 



