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WEAK OF COIN.

CIIAP. XXIII.

CHAPTER XXIII.

On the rate of loss on gold and silver coin by abrasion inremote and recent periods.

It has been hitherto assumed in this work thatthe loss on the general mass of coined gold andsilver by wear alone amounts to a three hundredand sixtieth part yearly. As from the greater in-crease of those metals more use of them was madefor money, so the more general and rapid circula-tion of them, and consequently a greater loss byabrasion, naturally took place. We are arrived ata period when it appears to be necessary to makean alteration in the rate of the loss occasioned bywear. In showing the grounds of that alterationit may be most convenient to go back and showthe grounds on which the former assumption wasmade.

In examining this subject, reference must behad to the several experiments, the particulars ofwhich are detailed in the Appendix No. 1, to whichthe reader was referred in the first volume. Theexperiments made by the officers of the mint inApril 1807, and the 16th December 1826, throwmuch light on the subject. It is, however, neces-sary to go a little farther back to a course of