COI 
Ih. 
Of Yellow brass 360 
Silver.. 370 
Iron. 450 
Gold 500 
He then tried the relative cohesion, or 
the force with which bodies resist an action 
applied to them in a direction perpendicu- 
lar to their length. For this purpose he 
fixed pieces of wood by one end into a 
square hole in a metal plate, and hung 
weights towards the other end till thejt 
broke at the hole ; the weights and distances 
from the hole are exhibited in the following 
table ; 
Pine 
Distance. 
ino* 
9^ 
Weight. 
02. 
36| 
Beech 
Elm 
Oak 
8^ 
Alder 

See his “ Elem. Nat. Philos.” 
COIF, the badge of a serjeant at law, 
who is called serjeant of the coif, from the 
lawn-coif they wear under their caps when 
they are created seijeants. 
COIL, in naval alfaiis, the manner in 
which all ropes are disposed aboard ships, 
for the conveniency of stowage. Coiling is 
a sort of sei-pentine winding the ropes, by 
which they occupy a small space, and are 
not liable to be entangled among one an- 
other in working the .s<iils. The small ropes 
aie frequently coiled by hand, and hung 
up to prevent them from being entangled 
among one anotlier, in traversing, contract- 
ing, or extending sails. 
COIN. Among the impediments to com- 
merce, the greatest undoubtedly is the 
charge of conveyance from place to place. 
This is the great obstacle which limits the 
exchange of commodities from one extre- 
mity of the world to the other. Wlienever 
the charges of carriage arise to such an 
amonnt as to equal the effectual return in 
any remote market, the motive for convey- 
ing merchandise to that place ceases. If 
goods were always exchanged for goods, it 
is clear that the conveyance, under the un- 
certainty of disposal, would take place to a 
very small distance indeed; and the labour 
required to discover the persons willing to 
exchange would greatly enhance the charge. 
It would require a volume to enumerate 
and describe the expedients, moral as well 
as mechanical, by which these difficulties 
COI 
are in part subdued, and still more to de- 
duce their origin and general effects. One 
of the chief of these expedients consists in 
the use of some article of merchandise, as 
the medium of exchange which shall be ac- 
ceptable to every man, and will therefore 
be received and held by the seller of any 
commodity until he shall meet with another 
individual, who he knows will again take it 
for the article he wants. 
In the island of Madagascar, it is said, 
that the exchangeable value of goods is 
reckoned in hatchets, bullocks, and slaves ; 
these commodities being universally vendi- 
ble, and for that reason every where received . 
Smith affiiTus, that nails answer the same 
purpose in some parts of Great Biitain. 
These, and other instances, may serve to 
shew how a preferable medium of exchange 
becomes adopted ; and it will without diffi- 
culty be seen, that the scarcest and least 
destructible metals must have at length be- 
come the universal substitutes : for their 
value does not depend on their figure ; 
t hey may be subdivided and joined again 
without loss; they receive no injury by 
keeping ; and the labour of conveying them 
from place to place forms a less part of 
their value than of any other article. 
The first monies were mere quantities of 
metals ascertained by weight, as the names 
of most species still indicate. The inter- 
ference of governments was found necessary 
to assure the weight, and more particularly 
the fineness of determinate portions of me- 
tal ; and this has given rise to an opinion, 
that a part of the value of coin must depend 
on the edict of th.e state which issues it. 
Whether statesmen themselves have in rea- 
lity thought this to be the case is little to 
the purpose; but it is certain that they have 
from time to time yielded to the temptation 
of diminishing the quantity of precious me- 
tal issued under a given denomination, ei- 
ther by openly deducting from the weight, 
or secretly debasing the coin. Transac- 
tions of this kind must have operated to the 
loss of all the creditors in the state; but 
they have never deceived the sellers, who 
have always regulated their prices by their 
knowledge of the real quantities of the me- 
tal, and not by tlie denomination or the 
supposed weight or fineness it might de- 
note. The imaginary coin, or money of ac- 
count, to be found in the mercantile books 
of almost every commercial nation, must 
have arisen partly from this cause. 
This diminution has taken place through- 
put Europe. With us the pound of money, 
which about the year 1087 contained a 
