12 Trial of the Pyx. 



counselling and assisting you in the execution of our 



service." 



" Given at Whitehall, the 9th day of November, 1657. 

 " To our trusty and well-beloved Nath. Fiennes and John 

 Lister, Lords Commissioners of our Great Seal of England." 



From the period of the Eestoration to the time of Her 

 Majesty Queen Victoria, trials of the Pyx have occurred at 

 very uncertain intervals, generally, however, on the appoint- 

 ment of a new Master of the Mint* the ceremony is performed, 

 it being held desirable to relieve the retiring officer of all 

 responsibility, and to transfer it to his successor. No other 

 specific rule exists either on the authority of a Royal Warrant 

 or an Act of Parliament for regulating the time when such 

 trials shall take place. The practice, however, of late years 

 has been to determine this point by the contents of the Pyx- 

 boxes themselves. When those receptacles become filled with 

 coin, it is physically essential that they should be emptied, 

 and, in order to accomplish this feat, the cumbrous machinery 

 of the State has to be put in motion. 



There are two Pyx-boxes deposited in a strong room at 

 the Mint, and the rapidity, or otherwise, with which they are 

 charged, depends on the activity of the stamping presses of 

 the establishment. One of the boxes is for the receipt of gold 

 and the other of silver coin. Each of the boxes is furnished 

 with three distinct locks, and the keys of which are retained 

 respectively by the Master, the Deputy Master and Comptroller, 

 and the Queen's Assay Master. In the boxes a single coin 

 from every journey weightf of gold or silver money transferred 

 to the Mint office from the coining department is deposited. 

 At the close of each day's weighing of coins at the central 

 office of receipt and' delivery, the Pyx coins, corresponding in 

 number with that of the journeys passed through the scales, 

 are put up in a paper parcel, and sealed by at least two of the 

 officers just mentioned. They are then placed in their sacred 

 prisons, and securely locked up until the day of trial- It may 

 be stated, in passing, that other pieces are retained day by day 

 from the current work, and tested both as to weight and fine- 

 ness by the Deputy Master and the Assayer. These operations 

 are known as the Mint Pyx Assay, and they are always 

 completed before the bulk of coin to which the trial pieces 

 pertain are forwarded to the Bank of England. 



* The office is now held as a life appointment, and has been 80 held eince 

 1851. Formerly it was a ministerial post. 



f A "journey" of gold consists of 180 ounces, or 701 pieces (sovs.), and a 

 journey of silver of 720 ounces, the number of pieces being dependant on the 

 denomination of coin. The word journey is believed to be a corruption of the 

 French word jour nbe. 



