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

MONEY.

used at Goldsmith's Hall for distinguishing the plate of this kingdom.
This scheme was abandoned in less than seven months from the date
of its adoption.
By statute in 1797, the 37 Geo. III. c. 45, 91, the Bank of England
was restricted from making payments in cash. This measure was
only a palliation, and not a cure of the evil which produced it;
and experience has made it doubtful, whether a recoinage of the gold
money of such a weight as might have rendered it unprofitable
either to melt or to export it, would not have been more expedient.
In the same year a contract was entered into with iMr. Boulton of
Soho, near Birmingham, for the coinage of 500 tons of copper moneys
in penny and two penny pieces. The penny piece was to weigh one
ounce Avoirdupois. Each piece was to have on one side the king's
effigy, with his name or title, and on the reverse the figure of
Britannia, sitting on a rock in the sea, holding a trident in her left
hand, and a branch of olive in her right, and the date of the coinage.
Two years after this a proclamation was issued for the currency of
Mr. Boulton's new coinage. Owing to an unexpected rise of copper,
the Privy Council allowed 36 instead of 32 halfpenny pieces to be
coined out of the pound of copper.
1801. Upon the union of Great Britain and Ireland, it was
declared by proclamation on 1 January, 1801, that His Majesty's
royal style and title should be Georgius Tertius, Dei Gratia Britanniarum Reex. Fidei Defensor; and that the arms of the United
Kingdom should be, quarterly, first and fourth, England; second,
Scotland; third, Ireland; and on an escutcheon of pretence the arms
of His Majesty's dominions in Germany.
In the year 1804 the Bank of England was authorized to issue
silver tokens of five shillings value, and 1211484 were issued during
the year. These coins had on the obverse the king's bust laureat, with
the circumscription GEORGIUS III. DEI GRATIA REX. On the reverse
was Britannia seated under a turreted crown, holding an olive branch
in her right hand and resting the left on a shield and spear. On
her left side was a cornucopia, and a bee-hive on her right, with the
inscription 1BANK OF ENGLAND, 1804. FIVE SIIILLINGS DOLLAR.
From a sudden rise in the price of copper, the greater part of the
penny and twopenny pieces disappeared, because they were worth
when melted down nearly one-third more than their value in coins.
On 7 May, 1806, a new coinage of penny, halfpenny, and farthing
pieces was made current on the same terms as those issued in 1799.
There were 150 tons of copper coined into penny pieces, 24 to the
pound Avoirdupois; 4271 tons into halfpenny pieces, 48 to the pound;
and 221 tons into farthings, 96 to the pound. All these were of the
same type and form as those of 1797, but of less weight.
In 1810 a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to
inquire into the causes of the high price of bullion and its effect on
the credit paper currency. This report declared that the evil arose
from the excessive issue of Bank of England notes since 1797; that a
rise in the price of gold, and a fall in foreign exchanges, and a general
rise in prices of all commodities, would always be the effect of the undue
quantity of the currency of a country, which is not exportable to other
countries; and that no sufficient remedy for the present evil, or
security against its recurrence existed, except in the repeal of the law
which suspended cash payments. Other causes might be stated, one