Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

44

MONEY.

was cut into 52 halfpence or 104 farthings. His Majesty's effigy was
impressed on the obverse with GEORGIUS II. REX only, and on the
reverse, the Irish harp crowned with the inscription HIBERNIA, With
the date of the year. His Majesty was pleased to direct that the
expenses of this coinage, and of the transmission of it to Ireland,
should be paid by His Majesty's Vice-Treasurer, and any profits that
might remain should go into the public revenue of Ireland.
In the next year a Proclamation was issued, which declared at
what rates the several pieces of gold in circulation should be current.
Besides the English gold coins, the guinea and the half-guinea,
there was in circulation a large number of the gold coins of France,
Spain, and Portugal. It was ordered in case any of the coins
named in the proclamation were found deficient in weight, that twopence should be allowed for every grain wanting of the true weight
in each coin, one penny for half a grain, and one halfpenny for a
quarter of a grain, and with this allowance the coins were to be
received as of full weight.
1742. About this time offences against the coinage laws had
greatly increased, both by filing and sweating the gold coins, as well
as by counterfeiting them in base metal and gilding them, so that a
remedy became urgent. The ~400 a year allowed by an Act of the
ninth year of Queen Anne, for several years had proved insufficient
for the expenses of prosecuting the offenders. An Act was passed
(15 Geo. II. c. 28.) by which an additional sum was allowed for tha
expenses of such prosecutions, but the amount was not to exceed
~600 in any one year.
George III., 1760-1820. On the accession of George III., the
grandson of George II., the coinage was still found to be in a very
imperfect state, and during his long reign, measures were taken from
time to time to amend its defects, and to render it sufficient for the
requirements of the nation.
In the year 1771, the gold coins were found to be in a very defective state; three-fourths of the silver coins were base, and the copper
was as bad as the silver. The offences against the coinage had so
increased, that ~1136. 19s. 10d. was allowed in addition to the ~600
allowed for the expenses attending such prosecutions in the year 1770.
In 1774 an Act was passed, that the deficient coins should be
called in and recoined, and that ~250,000 should be granted towards
the expenses. And that in future, the currency of gold coins should
be regulated by weight as well as by tale, as was conformable to the
ancient laws of the kingdom. The regulation thus established of
weighing the gold coins, has been the means of preserving them at
nearly the same state of perfection to which they were then brought.
Besides the sum of ~250,000 granted in 1774, other sums were granted
in the three following years amounting to ~267,320. In the year
1792, silver coins and bullion largely disappeared by the policy of the
French, who exchanged their assignats for all they could procure.
So rapidly they acted in this business, that not less than 2909000
ounces of silver were purchased with the assignats, and sent into
France. It had before been ascertained, that a recoinage of silver
was necessary, and in 1797, the coinage transactions formed a strange
anomaly in the history of the mint. The deficiency of silver coins was
attempted to be supplied by the issue of Spanish dollars, countermarked on the neck of the bust with the mark of the king's head,