CHAP. XXIII.

WEAR OF COIN.

173

ought to have contracted more than thirteen grainsof it on the hundred instead of two, as they ap-pear to have done. If judgment be formed fromthis criterion, the result would be that the piecescoined in 1821 had been issued before those ofthe prior date, or that they had been despatchedto some distant part of the kingdom, and, afterpassing through a few hands, had at length comeback again to the bank from whence they hadbeen issued.

The time when the new coinage was manu-factured followed a period of great inactivity atthe mint. The officers of that department hadenjoyed leisure and opportunity for exercisingthose talents for which they are eminently distin-guished in investigations and experiments to im-prove the fabrication of money. Whatever themechanical or chemical sciences could contributeto that object was examined, and if found appro-priate, was adopted. The best alloys were ascer-tained by which the money should be made mostdurable, and yet not brittle. The form of thecoins was changed so as to render them less sub-ject to loss by abrasion, and other improvementswere introduced, which, not falling immediatelyunder the design of this inquiry, need not here beentered into, though they are of great advantageto the public, and reflect high honour on theeminent persons attached to that establishment.

It must, from the observations before made, be