The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-10 00:00:00

TILE BRONZE COINAGE.

The Mechanics' Magazine points out several
advantages in the new money. The first in
order of these advantages is assuredly the dimin-
ished size of the bronze pieces as compared with
the copper money soon to become extinct. Every
person must, at some time or other, have expe-
rienced the inconvenience of having a " pocket
full of coppers." Somehow it is impossible to
avoid occasionally getting an accumulation of these
specimens of former Mintages, and then a natural
anxiety arises to get rid of them. Heavy, unwhole-
some, and unsavoury as the old copper coins were,
they were, after all, but tokens of value, and there
was no compensating good therefore for the nui-
sance of carrying them about one. The new bronze
coinage constitutes an extension of the token sys-
tem ; and, whereas the old coins were intrinsically
of only half their nominal value, their bronze suc-
cessors are intrinsically worth but one-fourth their
nominal and negotiable value. In two directions
the public thus benefit by the reform. The cost of
manufacture will be lessened, and the Mint will
require a smaller annual sum at the hands of her
Majesty's Faithful Commons for carrying on the
coinage than has heretofore been asked for and
obtained. In short, the remodelling of the copper
coinage will pay for itself, and leave a handsome
margin of profit to be handed over to the public
account. The copper coins at present in circulation,.
equal in weight, in round numbers, 6,000 tons, and
in number 500,000,000. An equal weight of bronze
metal will, by the present division of the 11b.-weight
into 48, 80, and 160 pence, half-pence, and farthings
respectively, yield something approaching
1,000,000,000 pieces of money, or double the num-
ber of pieces, of double the negotiable value, from
same weight of metal as was used for the copper
coinage. The economy of the new arrangement is
therefore as apparent as its convenience, and it will
be matter for gratulation when it is fully accom-
plished. Another improvement visible in the bronze
to
coinage is comprised in its having the current value
of each individual coin imprinted on the reverse
side. We have long advocated this plan in reference
to the whole British coinage,and
person
Nve especially
have
to
forin. any The coin itself should
suggested it in the formation of the new money. It
inquiresh ou l d notthe bewe
rnecessary e
give testimony thereto, and in this particular in-
stance we are glad to find that the Government has
adopted the suggestion
bronze no one who has witnessed the processes of
converting it into coin at her Majesty's Mint can
have the smallest doubt. Although, as our readers
well know, the mixture • 0f95 consists
copper, four parts of tin, and one part of zinc, yet
it is of so obstinate a h
c aracter as frequently to
split into fragments in' the of
course rolling, and to
require frequent and long annealings before it will
receive perfect impressions from the dies. The
compression between these latter in the act of strik-
ing hardens the discs ofmetal .
make them,such a way as to
in
comparison with pure copper money,
everlasting, They may, indeed, be termed un-
wearable coins, It is . •
will ratherrole
•s. t certain that their appearance
improve than deteriorate by age, and
very soon oxydation will affect those parts of their
surfaces which
do not come into rubbing contact
with table
andcounter in such a way as to form an
agreeable contrast to those parts which exposed
are
to
abrasion, and thus give the coins the appearance
of antigun bronze castings.

. F y.'

WILLS AND BEQUESTS.

The will of the Right Hon. Charles Herbert
Pierrepont, Earl Manvers, Viscount Newark, and
Baron. Pierrepont, of Holme Pierrepont, and of
Thoresby Park, both in the county of Nottingham,
and of 16, Portman-square, London, was proved in
the principal registry on the 3d of December, by
the Right Hon. Sydney William Herbert Pierre-
pont, Earl Manvers (heretofore Viscount Newark),
the son of the late Earl, and by the two sons-in-law,
Edward Christopher Egerton, Esq., M.P. for Mac-
clesfield, of Mountfield Court, Surrey, and Charles
Watkins Williams Wynn, Esq., of Llanged
Denbighshire. The personalty was sworn under
£BO,OOO. The will is very short, being comprised
in two folios. It bears date the 24th of October
last, only three days previous to his Lordship's
decease, which occurred on the 27th of October, at
his seat, Thoresby Park, in his eighty-third years
his Countess having predeceased his Lordship but
a few weeks—namely, on the 7th of the preced-
ing month of September, her Ladyship having
reached her seventy-fifth year. His LordshiP
is succeeded in his title and estates by la°
only surviving son, Sydney, Viscount Newark, nosy
third Earl Manvers, and to whom the testator has
left the residue of his personalty, after bequeathing
all his money equally amongst his son, the present
Earl, and his (the testator's) two daughters, the
Hon. Mary Frances and the Hon. Ann ora Charlotte;
and has left an annuity chargeable upon the
Thoresby estate of 100 guineas to Louis Christie.
The attesting witnesses are George Dennis, grown,
of chambers to the Earl, and W. S. Ward, of
Wellow, Notts. _

The will of Major-General Sir Henry Gee
Roberts, K.C.8., of her Majesty's Bombay Anal,
and Colonel of the 21st Native Infantry, was proved
in London by his relict, Lady Roberts, the sole
executrix. The General has bequeathed to hie
widow the whole of his real estate, as well as the
personal, the latter estimated at £3,000, for her
own absolute use and disposal. The will bears date
the 7th of May, 1855, and is very short; the
attesting witnesses are Charles Roberts and Joll
James Bond, both of the Public Record Office,
Carlton-ride. Sir Henry died at his residence:
Hazlcdine House, Redmarley, near Ledbury, Wor-,
cestershire, at the age of sixty. He was the grand'
son of Mr. W. Roberts, President of Magdalee•
College, Cambridge, whose wife's maiden name was
Gee. The testator entered very early in life the
military profession, and acquired both rank and
honours more rapidly than generally falls to the let
of officers employed in the military or naval service.
The will of Colonel George Anthony Legh-Keck;
Esq., of Staughton Grange, near Leicester, :and of
Bank Hall, near Lancaster, has been proved in
London by the executors, Geoffrey Palmer, of Carl-
ton Park, Northampton, and Edward Bourchier
Hartopp, Esq., M.P., of Little Dalby Hall, Leices-
tershire. The personalty was sworn under £70,000.
The will bears date the 30th of September, 1859•
The testator had married in 1802, but his wife died
in 1837, and has left no issue. The Colonel has
bequeathed his estates, both real and personal, to
the Hon. Major Powys, formerly of the 60th Royal
Rifles, and to his issue. The testator and the Major
were both officers of local corps, the deceased being
Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of Prince Albert's
Own Leicestershire Yeomanry Cavalry, and the
Hon. H. Littleton Powys Major of the Leicester
Militia. The will directs that several sums are to
be paid in the way of legacies and annuities, and
tokens of remembrances are to be given to friends
he has most generously considered his servants.
The Colonel's maternal father was Peter Legh,
Esq., and the deceased succeeded to the family
estates on the death of his brother, Peers Anthony
Keck, Esq., in 1797, and thus were united the natal
of Legh-Keck. The Colonel was M.P. for Leices•
tershire from 1797 to 1832, and attained the age of
86,—illustrated London News.

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