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The manner of making the standard Trial pieces.

After the making of new standard Trial pieces is resolved upon The Lord Chancellour may send his Letter to the Wardens & Company of Goldsmiths to return him the names of an able Iury to make the standards. The Iury for this purpose has been of 12 persons or more.

The return of the names being made, his Lordship may send his Warrant by his Serjeant at Arms or Serjeants Deputy to summon the Iury by their names to attend his Lordship at the time appointed.

And when they attend his Lordship may call to his Serjeant at arms for his Warrant for summoning them & order the same to be delivered to the Remembrancers Deputy who may attend with a Copy of an Oath to be given the Iury, & the Oath being administred the Lord Chancellour may give the Iury in charge to make with all exactness imaginable & according their best skill & endeavour One standard of crown gold conteining in the pound weight Troy eleven ounces of fine gold & one ounce of copper allay, & one standard of sterling silver conteining in the pound weight eleven ounces & two penny weight of fine silver & eighteen penny weight of copper allay, & to indent & divide each into seven equal parts & to inscribe & print each part in such manner as hath been usually done. And his Lordship may also appoint the time when & where to attend him with their Veredict & with the said Indented Triall pieces.

And when the Veredict is returned, his Lordship or his Order delivers the said Trial Pieces according to her Majesties directions expressed in the Indenture of the Mint or otherwise, taking Receipts from the persons to whom they are delivered, vizt from the Auditors & Deputy Chamberlains of the two Exchequers (if there be such Officers in Scotland) from the Wardens & Masters of the two Mints, & from the Wardens of the Company of Goldsmiths London, & sends the Veredict & Receipts to the Lord High Treasurer or Commissioners of the Treasury to be entered & kept in the Treasury by the Deputy Remembrancers

That piece which tallies with all the rest, is to be delivered into the Treasury at Westminster, the two delivered to the Officers of the Mint in the Tower are to tally with one another & one of them with that delivered to Wardens of the Company of Goldsmiths, & of the three sent into Scotland that which tallies with the other two may be delivered into the Treasury there that upon the trial of the Pix they may both be examined by it. The print upon the trial pieces has usually been the stamp of the current money & the inscription upon them has been in the following form

This standard commixed of 22 carrets of fine gold & 2 Carrets of allay in the pound weight Troy of England 20 Iun. 1707.

This standard commixed of 11oz 2dwt of fine silver & 18dwt of allay in the pound weight Troy of England made 20 Iun. 1707

The trial piece of silver for the Wardens of the Company of Goldsmiths may be kept in the Treasury untill they may have occasion for it.

© 2024 The Newton Project

Professor Rob Iliffe
Director, AHRC Newton Papers Project

Scott Mandelbrote,
Fellow & Perne librarian, Peterhouse, Cambridge

Faculty of History, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL - newtonproject@history.ox.ac.uk

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