Note 5 — PART II. THE PRINCIPLES OF MONEY APPLIED TO TRADE. (continued 3)

It is commonly believed that shillings are coined at Birmingham, and that government winks at the abuse, because of the great scarcity of silver in England. I find no foundation for this belief, after the inquiry I have made.

In the first place, Mr. Harris, who was the best assay-maker in Europe, told me, that a bag of those shillings had been sent to the mint by the Lords of the Treasury, to be tried by him: that he had found them to be English standard, to the most scrupulous exactness: that he did not believe any such correct assay could be made, except at the mint: that all the engravers of the mint declared it was impossible to imitate a worn shilling.

The trials I myself made were of a different nature. I examined the shillings with a magnifying glass; and found almost every one different in the impression, as well as in the weight. In some the back-part of the head was worn, in others the face: none, in short, were worn perfectly alike.

I put a handful of them into a coal fire; and taking them out when red-hot, and throwing them on the hearth, I plainly discovered, on many of them, some part of the arms of Great Britain appearing in the cross upon the reverse, in a different colour from the ground of the coin: in others indeed nothing could be seen: this was owing to the degree of wearing. How then can any dye strike an impression upon a coin, which answers all these appearances?

I communicated to Mr. Harris the trials I had made, and he was perfectly satisfied, upon the whole, that no old shilling had ever been counterfeited at Birmingham.