The Sun.
London, England, 1825-07-15 00:00:00

TII F, COINAGE.

••
Yesterday morning, at ten o'clock, the Lords
of his Majesty's Most Honourable PriVy COuncil assembled at
his Majesty's Exchequer ; the Lord Chancellor, the Chancel
for of the Eiehequer, Lord Stowell, and Sir H. Russel:,
were assembled.! iill.r.:WAhtet; the Master pf the Mint, was
present ; and although the purpose.of thb. Meeting was to exa-
mine the coins issued yat his Lordship did not ace any
objection to his takingbis'seat a'PriVy Councillor ; but still
there wanted another Privy;Councillor to 'constitute a Board,
and the' waited half an hour before another arrived, when Mr.
Wynn entered the room. , • •
The Board being then formed,' the Pidiitir. Officer proceeded
to call over the names of the Jury, and They answered to their.
names as follows :—Thomas Brind, Thomas .Ayres, Thomas
Halifax, Thomas Albion Cox, Philip Gilbert, James Hender-
son, Samuel Haynes, Walter Smith, John'Robinson Thomas
H:tyter, George Miles, and John Johnson. Most of these gen•
denten, we understand, are goldsmiths.
The Council and Jury assembled by virtue of an Order in
Council from the King in Council, to make trial of his Majesty'.
coins in the pix of the Mint. The Jury were sworn to make an
assay between his Majesty, the late Master of the Mint (Lord
Maryborough), and also Mr. Wallace, the present Master.
The LORD CHANCELLOR shortly addressed the Jury, and
told them they were to try the coins issued between the King
and his people, by the Master of the Mint, it being essential
that the coin of this realm, which has attained such pre-emi-
nence in the world, should he made pure, and that the public
mind should be satisfied on this subject—the experience of ages.
The Learned Lord then stated the substance of an indenture
which was entered into by our Sovereign Lord the King, which
establishes the standard of the coin in gold and silver, and di-
rects alloy to be used, which is neither to be too strong nor tors
feeble. It further provides for a trial by a pix, which is to be
done by fire, water, &c. His Lordship concluded by saying he
had no doubt, from the experience he had had on former occa -
sions of the same gentlemen, that they, would return a proper
verdict.

The Lords of the Council then separated; and the Gentlemen
of the Jury retired to the Duchy of Lancaster Court, wlier,
they were joined by the Clerk of the Goldsmiths' Company
and others and proceeded to make the experiments on the
coins by calculation, and afterwards melted a certain quantity,
to ascertain- if the quantity of alloy in the coins was in the
proper proportion. By the account of the gold monies coined
by the Right Honourable Thomas Wallace, Master Worker of
his Majesty's Mint, from 29th June, 1824, to the Ist July,
1825, agreeable to the Indenture, dated Feb. 6, 1817, the total
value of the coinage amounted to 5,046,3901. A similar ac-
count of the silver coined at the same time, after the rate of
sixty.-six shillings to the pound weight troy, of the standard of
eleven ounces two pennyweights of fine silver, and eighteen
penny-weights of alloy; together with an account of the small
monies coined for his Majesty's Maunday, within the year
1825, the whole of which was only of small amount, state the
total value of the coinage at 137,7611. 16s. The experiments
occupied the attention of the Jury till between three and four
o'clock, the report of which was made at Goldsmiths' Hall