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[This application was referred to the Mint on 12 February 1713: CTB, 27, part 2 (1713): 118-19.]
Printed in NC, 6: 51-2 (which dates it c. December 1713 but gives no suggestion as to why Newton should be supposed to have taken ten months to reply to the referral).
There is very little demand for copper coin at present, and when it is wanted it should be made entirely in the Mint. Remarks on minting techniques and guards against counterfeiting, and advice on quantities to be coined.
To the most ble
Lord High Treasurer of great Britain.
May it please rp
In obedience to rps
Petition of
Blancks or Plates of fine copper to be coined into half pence &
farthings, We humbly represent that copper money is at present very
little wanted, but if it shall be thought fit to put the coinage
of such money into a standing method, We are humbly of opinion
That the whole coinage including the making of the blancks
be done in the Mint it being unsafe to have coining tools &
coinage abroad.
That it be done of the cheapest fine copper ch
mer when red hot & is worth about 11d or 12d per pound weight. In
finer & dearer copper we may be easily deceived, there being no
certain test of the higher degrees of fineness; & the great price will
tempt fals coiners to counterfeit the money.
That it be done out of copper either hammered into plates at
the copper mills, or cast into barrs at the Mint with an addition of
two or three ounces of Tinn to an hundred weight of copper in
fusion to make the metal run close.
conformable to the coinage of gold & silver, & is cheapest by two
pence in the pound weight, &
will be at least got by counterfeiting that money whose workmanship
is cheapest.
That this money have
vent counterfeiting it by casting shall be directed
by the Queen & council
That the stamp, for avoiding frequent trouble to the Queen
& Council in allowing it, remain one & the same as in the
moneys of gold & silver, unless unless at any time upon any extraordinary occasions to alter it.
That an Importer be appointed to buy & import the
copper by weight, & receive back the new money by weight &
tale & put the same away. And that the Master & Worker
for the time being, be charged & discharged by his Note as in
the coinage of gold & silver , & be allowed a Weigher & Teller
for weighing the copper & telling the money between him &
the Importer & enabling all receipts & ts
the Copper prove not good upon the Assay the Master have power
to refuse it. And that a person be appointed to survey the meltings
& the whole coinage
ever it upon the Assay it proves not good.
That all the charges of Copper; coining tools, coinage,
wages & incidents be paid out of the profits of the coinage
& that either the Importer or the Master be accountant, &
that there be no perpetual salaries to increase the extrinsic value
of the moneys, but all services be paid for by the pound weight.
That a coinage of about twenty or thirty tunns once in three
or four years, or of fifty Tunns once in six or eight years
is sufficient for supplying the daily loss & wast of the moneys
already coined, & may prove too much if the counterfeiting
of the money encreases. And that a coinage of twenty or
thirty or at the most fifty Tunns seems to be abundantly
sufficient at present.
That a coinage of such money may be performed
from time to time by one & the same standing Commission
& that it be left in the power of the d
appoint by a particular Warrant the quantity of copper
money to be coined at any time which quantity should
never be so great at once as to endanger any clamour.
And that when the coinage of such money shall
be resolved upon by her ty
who have copper works be treated with, & his copper
chosen ch
of those sorts of copper which will hammer when red
hot.
All which, & whether a coinage shall be set on
foot till there be a greater want of such money, is most
humbly submitted to rps