Draft of MINT00647 (Mint 19/2/455)

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To the Right Honourable the Lord Commissioners of his Majesties Treasury.

May it please your Lordship

In answer to the Memorialists M^r Briggs & M^r Nicholson, I humbly represent, that as often as they have applied to me I have told them that without a Warrant from the King I could not receive copper in blanks nor coin money with round edges for the people; & that without your Lordships Warrant I could not deliver Cutters to them. I have told them also that M^r Appleby & M^r Hines having all things ready for a triall were to coin their five Tons first; & that when I was ready for the Memorialists I would give them notice, but it would take up some time first to prepare the Mint for a triall. There is no difficulty in rounding the edges of the blanks, & I have not delivered another cutter to M^r Appleby & M^r Hines nor are they Contractors but at discretion. M^r Nicholson is a Pewterer & understands nothing of this matter but what his partner teaches him. M^r Briggs is a dealer in Barbary copper & understands not how to refine copper but must hire the refining work {still he can} {illeg} And they they have both told me that they shall lose by this trial, & by consequence it will not be uon an equall foot foot between the competitors.

But if the Memorialists instead of applying for Warrant have given themselves a great deale of trouble in solliciting me to act without them, & in opposition to be the notice which I gave them that Appleby & Hines being ready should have the first tryall, they have built furnaces & prepared a sufficient quantity of copper ready for the Cutters & been at charge in preparing the same; they have done it contrary to my advice & without staying for sufficient authority & can blame no body but themselves if they should lose their charges for acting in this manner. These things are facts & may suffice to shew that the accusations in the Memorial are fals &

All the coinage of Gold & silver is performed by people under my direction because I am accountable for the weight & fineness, & his Majestys Warrant for the coining of copper money makes me accountable also for the value there of To do it of fine copper is a manufactur never before set up in England. & I have met with great difficulties in setting it up for want of time to try experiments before I began. For removing the main difficulties I perswaded M^r Appleby & M^r Hines to rend a water mill a horse mill being too weak & the difficulties are in a great measure removed, & those that remain will be <441v> more easily removed by people under my direction then by such as do not regain me. To be concerned in this sort of coinage I never desired but it falls to my lot. And things are upon such a foot that I can get nothing but discredit by coyning the money ill. I am now trying if instead of nealing & cleaning the Copper in the barrs the moneyers can learn to neale & clean it sufficiently in the blanks. And if your Lordships please to suffer me to go on with M^r Appleby & M^r Hines untill this difficulty is over, & they have also coyned the copper which they have already manufactured &

And if any faulty pieces escape them we rece

In the last coinage of copper moneys the copper was worth about 8^d per pound weight & a pound weight was cut into 21$\frac{1}{2}$^d The copper is now worth between 13$\frac{1}{2}$ & 14^d & the coinage is b{illeg} & yet a pound weight is cut only into 23^d whereof a    three half pence is reserved to the government.

These

They complain of me & now complain of me for not acting without warrants.

For putting an end to this matter I humbly pray that your Lordships will be pleased still to allow me to try any man's copper & to receive or reject it accordingly as I shall find it finer or coarser & better or worse prepared & to go on with Appleby & Hines till I can meet with better workmen willing to serve me, & to referr to such a trial those people who now complain & whose copper I intend to coin in due time if I find it for for the Mint.

① In the last coinage of copper was worth about 7^d$\frac{1}{2}$ or 8^d per pound weight & a pound weight was cut into 21$\frac{1}{2}$^d. The copper is now worth between 13$\frac{1}{2}$ & 14^d per pound weight & the coinage is difficulter & more chargeable & better performed & yet the allowance for copper & coinage is the same as before a pound weight is cuts only into 23^d whereof three half pence are reserved to the government. All deficiency in the goodness of the copper hitherto complained of doth not amount to the 40^th part of the whole value of the copper, which is no more then the Remedy allowed in weight, & therefore would be within the Remedy in fineness if the Assays were exact enough for setling such a remedy. And as for the form of the moneys it is before every bodies eyes & ought not to be judged of by the faulty pieces.

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The nature of coinage is such that amongst the moneys newly coined there will be some pieces faulty in form. It always was & always will be so in the coinage of gold & silver, & the coinage of fine copper is more difficult. But it is the duty of the moneyers to pick out those faulty pieces & I have caused half a Tunn of such {illeg} {coyned} moneys to be melted down again. And this has been the standing practise of the Mint {time} out of mind without any disparagement to the coynage of gold & silver. Because I am accountable for the gold & silver moneys in weight & fineness, that coinage is performed by people under my direction. And his Majestys Warrant has made me accountable also for the avlue of the copper moneys according to the rules prescribed therein. To coin moneys of fine copper is a manufacture never before set up in England, & I have met with great difficulties in setting it up for want of time to try Experiments before I began. For removing the main difficulties I perswaded M^r Appleby & M^r Hines to rent a water mill, a horse mill being too weak, & the difficulties are in a great measure removed. And those that remain will be more easily removed by people under my direction then by such as do not regard me. I cannot undertake absolutely that in the copper imported there shall be no faulty barrs which may escape the assays, but I am safest in people that are afraid of me. To be concerned in this sort of coiange I never desired: but it falls to my lot, And things are upon such a foot that I can get nothing but discredit by coyning the money ill. And if those that have served me hitherto be used too hardly, no body else will serve me. I am very willing to lend the Copper rooms in the Mint to any body whomay be authorized to take care of this coinage & content my self with the coiange of the gold & silver; but if it be your Lordships pleasure that I go on with it, I will take the best care I can to have it well performed. And that the Memorialists may not lose their charges I will coine the copper they have prepared if I find it fit to be coined. But I have notice that theyuse Barbary copper refined in London & after such notice it will be requisite that they satisfy me in that matter least I should {be} accused of conniving at forreign copper after notice that it is forreign.

I humbly pray your Lordships therefore that I may go on in the method which is suitable to this Warrant & in which I have hitherto acted, which is by allowing me to try any mans copper & to receive or reject it accordingly as I find it finer or coarser, & the manufacture better or worse: & to imploy those who serve me best

To coin money of fine copper is a manufacture never before set up in England

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{Six pondys corporis, si uniforms sit, & tempus in æquales nartes dividator singulis temporis particulis æqualiter agendo in corpus, æqualiter matum egus mutabit.}

{Vt si corporis cadentis, gravitas equs sit uniformes, {hæco} singulis Kenpons particulis æqualibus æqualiter agenda imprimet caries æquales in {illeg}coppus allud & generabit velocitates æquales et propteret vis tota in coprus eudens impressa & velocitas tota genita simper erif ut tempur totum sedendi Et temporibus proportionalibus spatia descripta erunt ut velocitates ac tempora conjunctim, id est in duplicata ratione temporum.}

Si corpus viribus certoripetis revolvantur quæ sunt reciproce ut cubi distantiarum a centro, docuit D. Cotes ordem invenire quem corpus describet, de loco dato data cum velocitate secundum datam rectam egressi