'Considerations about the receiving of Scotch money by weight'

<218r>

Considerations about the receiving of Scotch money by weight.

If for every penny weight that any silver is worse then standard there be from sixty & two shillings deducted three pence & the third part of a penny, the remainder will be the value of that silver per pound weight & the twelft part of that remainder will be the value thereof per ounce very nearly.

The Scotch Marks, Half Marks, Two-mark-pieces & Four-mark-pieces (coyned in ye reign of K. Cha: II by my Lord Hatton who was then General of the Scotch Mint & accused in Parliamt for coyning the money ill) being lighter & coarser then standard &for that reason {illeg}called in, cannot now remain in any considerable quantity. The coarsest of those pieces wch we have examined are vijdwt worse then standard & by consequence worth 5s per ounce. One piece wth another they may be recconed vdwt or vdwt ob worse then standard & by consequence worth about 5s 0d$\frac{\mathrm{1}}{\mathrm{2}}$ per ounce.

The 60, 40, 20, 10 & 5s pieces coyned in the reigns of K. Iames & K. William (so far as we have examined them) are most of them standard. Some few pieces are jdwt ijdwt & iijdwt worse then standard but one with another they may be recconed 1dwt worse & by consequence worth about 5s 1d$\frac{\mathrm{1}}{\mathrm{2}}$ $\frac{\mathrm{1}}{\mathrm{8}}$ per ounce.

Of those coyned in the end of the reign of K. Cha: II I have only examined two sixty shilling pieces & they prove the one iijdwt the other iiijdwt worse then standard. At wch rate that coyn will be worth about 5s 1d per ounce. If it be thought requisite I will enquire for more pieces of that reign & get them examined.

There is also an allowance to be made for so{illeg}me counterfeit money wch may be mixed with the genuine Scotch coyn. By this mixture the broad hammered English money has this year proved 1dwt worse then standard, & the clipt money the last year (when all counterfeit cast m{illeg}oney <218v> was received) proved iijdwt or iiijdwt worse. But what allowance may be made for such mixtures {illeg}in the Scotch money & for the charges of recoyning I leave to be considered.