Letter concerning allowances to Mr Allardes for the coinage of silver moneys and Edinburgh, with copies of the relevant clauses in the Indenture of the Mint

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To the most Honourable the Earl of Godolphin Lord High Treasurer of great Britain.

May it please your Lordship

In obedience to your Lordships verbal Order I humbly lay before your Lordship the state of the Question about the allowance to be made in the Accounts of Mr Allardes for the late coinage of silver moneys at Edinburgh.

By the Indenture of the Mint in the Tower the Master & Worker is allowed sixteen pence half penny upon the pound weight Troy for the coinage of silver moneys. The words of the Indenture are hereunto annexed.

By her Majesties Warrant of Iune 20th, 1707 for putting the Act of union in Execution, the Officers of her Majesties Mint at Edinburgh were directed to observe the rules of coinage set down in the said Indenture with respect to their several Offices. But I do not remember that any alteration in the allowance for coinage or in the salaries was then under consideration. The words of the Warrant are hereunto annexed.

By an Act of Parliament made in Scotland A.C. 1690 the Master of that Mint was allowed twenty pounds Scots upon the stone weight Scots for coinage of silver moneys, & this allowance was in use till the Vnion. The words of the Act are hereunto annexed. Three pounds Scots are worth four shillings sixpence halfpenny English at their just value. But the nation of Scotland valued thirteen shillings Scots at twelve pence English before the Vnion while the said Act of Parliament was in force, & at thirteen pence English in distributing the Equivalent. The allowance for coinage comes in the first case to almost seventeen pence halfpenny upon the pound weight Troy, in the second to something more then seventeen pence halfpenny, in the third to something more then nineteen pence. There hath been coined 104227lwt 10oz Troy, & the whole allowance for the coinage thereof comes in the first case to 7533li. 13s. 2d, in the second to 7655li, 18s. 10d, in the third to 8293li. 18s. 9d; & by the Indenture of the Mint it comes only to 7165li. 12s. 3d. And for paying all the Accounts relating to that coinage, there is a deficiency in the funds of about two or three thousand pounds.

The Question is, what shall be allowed in the Accounts of Mr Allardes upon the pound weight Troy for the said coinage.

Which is most humbly submitted to your

Lordships great wisdome

[1]

Is. Newton

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The Clause in the Indenture of the Mint appointing the allowance per pound weight for coinage.

And the said Isaac Newton shall have & receive the summe of one shilling & four pence half penny to be by him taken for the coinage of every pound weight Troy of silver moneys for the paying bearing & susteining all manner of wasts, provisions, necessaries & charges coming arising & growing in or about the coining of her Majesties Crowns, half crowns, shillings & sixpences of silver moneys by the mill & press out of the moneys to be paid & payable unto him as is herein after expressed. And the said Master shall out of the one shilling & four pence half penny allowed to him as afforesaid & received by him for every pound weight Troy of the moneys of silver, from time to time pay unto the Moneyers the summ of eight pence for the making of every pound weight Troy of the said silver moneys by the mill & press, according to the undertaking & agreement of the said Moneyers with the said Master & Worker.

The clause in her Majesties Warrant directing the Officers of her Mint at Edinburgh to observe the Rules of coinage set down in the said Indenture.

It is our Will & pleasure, & We do hereby authorise & require you & every of you, that in the coinage of such Gold & Silver as shall be imported into Our Mint at Edinburgh, you act under & observe the Rules of coinage which respect your several Offices & are conteined & exprest in the copie of the Indenture herewith sent, attested by Sir John Stanley Warden of our Mint in the Tower of London, Sir Isaac Newton Master & Worker & John Ellis Es Comptroller of our said Mint: which Indenture was made in the first year of our reign with the said Sir Isaac Newton &c

To the General, Master, Warden, Counter-warden,

Assay-master, & other Officers of our Mint at

Edinburgh.

The clause of the Act of Parliament made in Scotland 1690, entituled an Act anent an humble offer to his Majesty for an imposition upon certain commodities for defraying the expence of a free coinage.

It is ordeined that considering that by the Act of Parliament 1686 anent a free coinage there is only allowed eighteen pounds <165r> scots upon the stone weight of silver for defraying the whole charge wast expences & loss upon its coinage, which allowance is found by experience to be too small & insufficient: therefore their Majesties with the advice & consent of the said estates do hereby rescind in all time coming that clause of the aforesaid Act, & further statute & ordein that the Master of the Mint have allowed to him in time coming twenty pounds Scots instead of eighteen pounds Scots upon the stone weight of silver as the just & reasonable allowance for defraying the said charge expence & loss upon its coynage in manner provided in the said Act.

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The case of Mr Allardes.