467), with notes

Author: Isaac Newton

Source: MINT 19/2/470, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK

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<470v>

May it please your Lordships

According to your Lordships order the Pix of the Copper moneys coyned by M^r Wood for Ireland has been opened & tried in the Mint by the kings Assaymaster before us. And by the Comptrollers account (to which M^r Wood agreed) there has been coined from Lady day 1723 to March 28th 1724 in half pence 55 Tuns 5 cwt, 3^{Q^ters}, 0^{lw^t}, 12^oz, And in farthings 3 Tunns, 17Q. 2^Q. 10^li. 8^oz And by the specimens of this coinage which have from time to time had been taken from the several parcels coined & put into the pix we found that sixty half pence weighed 14 ounces Troy & eighteen penny weight which is about a quarter of an ounce above one pound averdupois & that thirty farthings weighed three ounces & three quarters of an ounce Troy & forty six grains. And that both half pence & farthings when heated red hot spread very thin under the hammer without cracking, as your Lordships may see by the pieces now laid before you. But tho the copper was very good & the money taken one piece with another was full weight, yet the single pieces were not so equally coined in weight as they should have been.

We found also that thirty & two old half pence coined for Ireland in the reigns of king Charles the second king James the second & king William & Queen Mary weighed 6 ounces & eighteen penny weight Troy, that is, 103 $\frac{1}{2}$ grains a piece with another. They were much worn. And if about six or seven grains be allowed to each of them one with another for loss of their weight by wearing, they might at first weigh about half a pound averdupoise one with another. But they were made of bad copper. Two of those coined in the reign of king Charles the second wasted much in the fire & then spread thin under the hammer but not so well without cracking as those of M^r Wood. Two of those coined in the reign of king James the second & two of those coined in the reign of king William & Queen Mary wasted still more in the fire {&} turned in the fire to a substance like a cynder & flew in pieces under the hammer, as your Lordships may see by the pieces now laid before you.

The half pence & farthings in the Pix coined by M^r Wood had on one side the head of the king with this inscription GEORGIUS DEI GRAITIA REX & on the Reverse a woman sitting with a Harp by her left side & the inscription HIBERNIA with the date. And we did not observe that any of them were of any other form. The half pence coined in the reigns of king Charles king James & king William had on one side the head of king Charles or King James or King W^m & queen Mary & on the reverse a harp crowned.

Two of those coined in the reign of king James the second wasted more in the fire & were not malleable when red hot: two of those coined in the reign of King W. & M. wasted much more in the fire & turned to an unmalleable substan{ce} like a cinder, as your Lordships may see by the pieces now laid before you.

We reccon the copper of M^r Woods half pence & farthings to be of about the same goodnes & value with the copper of which the copper money is coyned in the kings mint for England, or worth about 12 or 13^d per pound weight Averdupois in the market: & the copper of which the half pence were coyned for Ireland in the reigns of king Cha. king James & king William to be much inferior in value & almost of no value in the Market, the mixture being uncertain & not bearing the fire for converting it to any other use.