Royal Mint

“ The Council Books abound with proof how hard it was to dissuade the King from adopting this ‘intended project of enhancing the coin [i. e. by debasing the standard] , though, as Cotton afterwards said at the Council Table, to do so would trench, both into the honour, the justice, and the profit’ [i. e. the real and ultimate profit] ‘of my royal Master very far.’
In his address at the Board, Sir Robert made an almost exhaustive examination of the history of the English Mint. He did it with much brevity and pith. ”

“ Du Bois, Assistant Assayer. The collection grew, year by year, by making exchanges to supply deficiencies, by purchases, by adding our own coin, and by saving foreign coins from the melting-pot—a large part in this way, at a cost of not more than their bullion value, though demanding great care, appreciation, and study. Valuable donations were also made by travelers, consuls, and missionaries. In 1839, Congress appropriated the sum of $1,000 for the purchase of “specimens of ores and coins to be preserved at the Mint.” ”

“ The larger question of the relative distribution of this mass of precious metals depends for its determination upon a full understanding of the law of the various Mints. Speaking in large, during the eighteenth century the Mint ratio was in favour of silver in France, and her currency was almost entirely silver throughout the century; conversely the Mints [Pg 157] favoured gold in England and Spain, and gold was almost the only constituent of the currency of either country for the greater part of the century. ”

“ More even than at present our British Mints would perform the labours of the Danaïdes, ever pouring forth new and beautiful coin, at once to disappear into the bullion dealer's crucible. The sovereign would be an evanescent coin, constantly liable to be recoined with the permanent impress of a foreign mint. Common sense, as well as invariable experience, tells us that we must be worsted in this contest of the heavier and the lighter coin.'—Professor Jevons' Paper in the Journal of the Statistical Society, vol. ”

“ I call to witness the vast sums that have been coined in England since the free coinage was set up. What is become of it all? Nobody believes it to be in the nation, and it cannot well be all transported, the penalties for so doing being so great. The case is plain—the melting-pot devours it all; and I know no intelligent man who doubts but the new money goes this way. Silver and gold, like other commodities, have their ebbings and flowings; upon the arrival of quantities from Spain, the Mint commonly gives the best price, i.e. coined silver for uncoined silver, weight for weight. ”

“ It has been said that the reception of Silver by the Mint is no demand at all, because it is not purchase but merely a return in another form of the same ounce of Silver that is brought to it.
That seems to me to be mere logomachy. Whether the action is called purchase or no signifies nothing. Of course it only gives you back the Silver that you bring, but the 'other form' in which it returns it is Money. There is nothing mysterious about Money, but it has the unique quality of discharging debt. The Mint takes all the Silver you can bring, and what can Demand do more? ”

“ And in 1868 the English Mint turned out only £1,653,384 sterling, or about eight million dollars' worth in American coin. The gold coinage of France has also declined below the rate of fresh production in America. Thus America is rapidly attaining the first place as a gold coining country. And it will be a question for future time to solve, whether the English and Australian Mints, in their united working, will exceed the manufacture by the United States' Mints at Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver.' ”

“ We all know that it is more convenient to make our payments, so far as possible, in one coin than in two or more, let it be of gold, silver, or copper. Now, as a matter of ascertained fact, the Mint produces a larger number of shillings than of any other denomination of silver coin. ”

“ Whereupon the king, laughing, denominated his trans-Atlantic subjects “honest dogs,” and allowed the coinage to proceed.
During the reign of George I. a new species of coin was issued from the English Mint, denomination half penny, and it is asserted upon good authority that this was the only issue ever authorized by the home government for general circulation in the colonies. It was a coin of mixed metal, resembling brass. The head of the king was on the obverse; inscription, “Georgius Rex.” The reverse, a large double rose under a crown; legend, “Rosa Americana.” Upon a scroll, “Utile Dulci. ”

“ S. gold or S. silver, as its standard coins of one or the other metal are unlimited legal tender. The par of exchange of the monetary unit of a country with a single gold, or a double, standard is fixed at the value of the gold unit as compared with the United States gold unit. In the case of a country with a single silver standard, the par of exchange is computed at the mean price of silver in the London market for a period commencing October 1 and ending December 26, 1886, as per daily cable dispatches to the Bureau of the Mint. ”

“ Many of our bankers here have a great trade with your goldsmiths and merchants in London for English gold and heavy English silver. Your Mint will never go until this be discovered, for these men are the sluices that drain all your money. I believe there is at this day forty times more gold and silver in the Low Countries than in England. About twelve years since the French were forced to call in all their money, it being so clipped that their commerce ran into confusion, and you have almost brought yourself to the same point, the coin in Ireland being 20 per cent. ”

“ Since 1726, to the present time, the silver coinage of the French mint has amounted to 7,500,000,000 francs, of which 4,000,000,000 has been issued since 1850; since 1664 the silver coinage of the Russian mint has amounted to 488,000,000 roubles, of which 188,000,000 has been issued since 1850; since 1792 the silver coinage of the United States mint has amounted to $325,968,571, of which $352,741,869 has been issued since 1850; since 1603, the silver coinage of the British mint has amounted to £40,000,000, of which £16,000,000 has been issued since 1850. ”

“ Two years later, 1403, the Commons again complained of the depletion of gold, and again a statute was passed, and so on. This futile process actually reproduces itself yearly up to 1411, when at last the question of a recoinage was fairly faced. By the ordinance for, and regulation of, the money of the realm, of that year, it was provided that, "because of the great scarcity of money at the time," the Master of the Mint should make of every pound of gold 50 nobles, and of silver 30 shillings of esterlings of old alloy. ”

“ He stated that the necessary machinery for a mint could easily be made and that the advantage of possessing legal money in preference to any other would induce people to carry foreign money to the mint until a sufficiency were struck for the circulating medium, and the remainder of foreign gold and silver coins should be left entirely to the operations of commerce as bullion. ”

“ Bank-bills, they say, are nothing but wretched rag-money; the eulogies of the metals, gold and silver, are now become the order of the day. Gold is called Jackson money; the United States mint has been actively employed in striking gold coins, half-eagles and quarter-eagles. ”

“ In 1294 the scarcity of silver coinage was so great that a proclamation was put forth ordering silver to be brought to the Mint, and forbidding the export of the metals. In consequence of the futility of this ordinance, a further proclamation was issued in 1309, forbidding the circulation in France of English silver sterlings and gold florins of Florence, and crying down the exchange denomination of all other foreign coins. ”

“ Occasionally one of the gold pieces can be purchased, but they are rare and bring large prices by coin collectors, being regarded as curiosities. There are a large number of counterfeits in circulation among the bullet-shaped coin, owing to the fact that a number of years ago the master of the mint, unknown to the King, manufactured an immense number of copper ticals, and being an adept in metallurgy plated them with silver, and put them in circulation. ”

“ A time might possibly come (though in real life it never did come while the French law of 1803 was in full operation) when the commercial demand—that is to say the demand for the arts and for export—would slacken; no more Silver plate being needed at the price, and no need existing for export to the East. Then the Mint demand, as being the only other outlet for the Silver would became positively, as it had been negatively, effective; and Silver would flow to silver-coining countries for coinage. ”

“ In the year 1834 a change took place in the ratio of gold to silver in the standard of U. S. coins, the effect of which was to bring large deposits of gold to the Mint. The coinage previously had been chiefly of silver. The more equal supply of the precious metals gave active employment in the assay of each of them, and was, of course, most valuable as an experience to Mr. Du Bois, who about this time became connected with the assay department. ”

“ More has not been asked or desired, for the officers of the Mint have not sought to vie with the long established collections of the national cabinets of the old world, or even to equal the extravagance of some private numismatists; but they have admirably succeeded in their purpose to secure such coins as would interest all, from the schoolboy to the most enthusiastic archæologist. ”

“ I show that as the price of Silver, like that of all other commodities, must fluctuate with the Supply of it and the Demand for it, so the open Mint in France acted as a perpetual demand at a fixed price would act, and that accordingly the price here could never fall below what the seller believed was the equivalent of the frs. ”

“ Copper is much preferred to gold for medals. Its firm, unchanging surface accepts and retains finer lines than have yet been produced upon gold and silver, and it offers no temptation to be thrown into the crucible. [1]
In the preparation of this work, I am much indebted to several gentlemen connected with the United States Mint; also, to Messrs. R. Coulton Davis, Ph.G., and E. Locke Mason, who are acknowledged authority on the subject of numismatics. ”

“ The whole system is as little comprehensible by the uninitiated as the philosopher's stone. The cost of the Mint is prodigious—the machinery is all that machinery can be; yet we have one of the ugliest coinages of any nation of Europe. A new issue of coin is about to be commenced.
"It appears, from the king's proclamation, that the new coinage will consist of double sovereigns, to be each of the value of 40s.; sovereigns, each of 20s.; and half-sovereigns, 10s. silver crowns, half-crowns, shillings, and sixpences. ”

“ I believe no body ever imports louis d’ors to be coined in the English mint (notwithstanding of the benefit there is in importing gold into England from France, where the proportion of the metals is lower) yet nothing is more common than to carry guineas to every foreign mint, at the bare price of bullion. This is the reason why so little English coin, and so much French coin is found in circulation, in countries foreign to both these nations. ”

“ Need it be wondered at that money is so tight, and that railway stock in particular exhibits, week after week, a progressive and most alarming decline.
But, say the bullionists, if we have taken away one-half of your paper, we have given you double the former command of sovereigns; and gold is far better than paper, because it is of universal and permanent value. There can be no doubt that the gold and silver coinage at the Mint has been very much augmented since paper was so much withdrawn; and the amount in circulation now probably varies in ordinary times from £40,000,000 to £45,000,000. ”

“ Surely not in France, nor measured in francs; for it is inconceivable that in the absence of alterations of the échéances of the bons de monnaie, or of limitations of the quantity to be coined, any man who could by law demand 200 francs from the Mint for his kilogramme of Silver would be content to take 199 or any less quantity from any buyer. Just as it is inconceivable that an English holder of a like quantity of Silver would take less than 60d. ”

“ He instituted the Cabinet of coins which now adorns the Mint. This was commenced in 1838. A small annual appropriation was procured from Congress for this purpose, and the work of collection committed entirely to Mr. Du Bois. He brought to it all the enthusiasm which animates most numismatists, sobered, however, by good judgment. His expenditures were always judicious. Some of the best of the specimens were culled from the Mint deposits for the bullion value, merely, of the pieces. ”

“ An Imperial Mint, openly conducted and turning out good work, would arouse no such suspicions; and its money would very soon be current, not only in the provinces of the south and east, but also in those of the north and west, for the following reasons:
"The travelling merchant and trader of the north and west has now to carry with him both silver sycee and copper cash. Copper cash is heavy, and it is impossible to carry much value in that form; whilst the carrying about of silver entails many and grievous losses in exchange. ”