172-3)

Author: Unknown, Isaac Newton

Source: MINT 19/1/157, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK

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- Revision History
  - 1 January 2001
    - Catalogue information compiled by Rob Iliffe, Peter Spargo & John Young
  - 29 September 2011
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  - 15 January 2017
    - Transcribed by Will Scott
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Related Texts
- This document is a version of:
  Reply to a query about the engravers' patent [MINT 19/1/172-3]

<157r>

A Question being moved about a clause in the Gravers Patent, I humbly beg leave to lay the matter before your Lordship. All Gravers having a liberty to make Medals where they are not restrained by the Government the Gravers for their encouragement have be a clause in their Patent been allowed & all others prohibited to make Medals with the effigies of the King or Queen. And this Office of Medal-maker to the Crown has been sometimes encouraged by a large salary out of the Civil List, & sometimes granted to strangers & is no part of the constitution of the Mint. For by the standing constitution of the Mint, the Moneyers coyne what ever the Government has occasion for whether Money Medals or Healing pieces, the metal weight allay and form of the Money & Medals being first appointed by the King or Queen by advice of the Council, & the Graver only makes the stamps. Now if for saving her Majesty & the Council the trouble of giving particular Orders about such Medals as the Government has no occasion for, & for encouraging the Graver of the Mint to improve themselves to be content with less salaries it be thought fit to continue this Office or Privilege to the Gravers: I am humbly of opinion that the Gravers be obliged to set their name or the first letters thereof upon their own Medals to distinguish them from Medals made by the Queens Mint. They may be also restrained from dispersing them before a specimen of them has been shewed to your Lordship or your Order or even from making medals relating to state affairs or be otherwise limited as her Majesty shall think fit. And when ever the Government pleases to order the the coynage of a Medal I am ready to coyn it according to the course of the Mint as in the case of coronation Medals & to deliver any number of such Medals to your Lordships Order. But to alter the course of the Mint or to place in the Mint an arbitrary power of coyning Medals, or to give to any Medals not approved by the Government the credit of being coyned by the Mint may have {bad} consequences, & I humbly conceive its better that the Gravers Privilege be taken away, & the coynage of Medals left to the course of the Mint

The Gravers of the Mint do hereby give notice that their privilege of making Medals being no part of the constitution of the Mint; they will for the future set their names or the first letters thereof upon all their own Medals to distinguish them from Medals made by the Mint

<157v>

But should the Course oof the Mint be allowed by making the Gravers P{rivilege} a part of the constitution or

But whether the Coynage or Medals for the future shall be in the Gravers or in the Mint & with what restrictions is humbly s{u}