COLCHICUM

I and drawn Into plates of proper thickne , which require I to be most nicely adjusted, so that a piece of proper size i punched out of any part of the plate may have the exact j weight of the intended coin; the blanks are then cut out of these plates, which are thus reduced to the state of, sci el, and remelted (under due checks and precautions), to be again cast into bars. The blanks (amounting to about two thirds, and the sci el to one third of the weight of the original plate of metal) are next annealed, and pa ed through the marking machine, by which the edge of each piece is made smooth and a little raised; they are then cleaned or blanched by being put for a few minutes into a hot and very dilute sulphuric acid, after which they are thoroughly washed and dried, and are ready to be stamped or coined. This operation is performed in pre es moved by mechanical power, and consists in placing the blanks 'between two steel dies, upon one of which is engraved the obverse and upon the other the reverse of the coin, so as to give an impre ion in relief; while the spreading of the piece in a lateral direction is prevented by the rising of a collar at the moment the blow is struck, in which collar is engraved the milling, which is thus transferred to the edge of the piece at the same moment that the impre ions of the dies are taken upon its two surfaces. The coining pre es at the mint are attended by boys, who only have to fill a tube or species of hopper with the blanks; the operation of laying the blank upon the dies, and again throwing it off when stamped, being effected by the machinery connected with the pre , thus preventing the risk of crushing the fingers of the persons who used to be employed in this department before these layers on, as they are technically called, were adopted. In the coining room at the mint there are eight pre es, each adapted for every species of coin; each pre strikes upon an average 60 pieces per minute, or 3600 per hour; so that in the day's work of 10 hours each pre produces 36,000 pieces; and the eight pre es (supposing, which is rarely the case, that they are all in use) stamp 288,000 pieces daily. The money when thus completed is weighed up in what are called journey weights for delivery to the importers of the bullion; the gold in 15 lbs. and the silver in 60 lbs. troy. But, before any coin is suffered to pa out of the mint, it is inspected as to its workmanship; and ifany journeys are faulty or imperfect in this respect, they may be cut and returned to the moneyers for recoinage. The weight and finene of the money are also ultimately examined and insured by the proce of pixing, which consists in taking promiscuously from every journey weight of coin a pound in talc, which is delivered by the weigher and teller to the king's a ay-master, who carefully weighs it, and declares aloud the minus or plus upon each pound (if it be not standard or exact), which is recorded by the king's a ayer, by the comptroller, and by the king's clerk. This determines whether the moneyers have made the money within the remedy allowed upon the pound troy; but, as the remedy upon the pound is divided among the number of pieces in it, the comptroller weighs several of the pieces individually, and if they are not within the allowed limits, can, in conjunction with the other check officers a embled on this duty, return the coin to the moneyers to be remelted and recoined at their expense. From the same pound weight of gold or silver the comptroller also takes two pieces, one of which is handed to the king's a ay-master to a ay, in order to prove that the metal has undergone no deterioration in any of the proce es of its manufacture; the other piece is sealed up in a packet and consigned to the pix box, which is locked by the separate keys of the check officers, where it remains until the trial qf'the pix by jury before the king or certain of his council, which usually takes place once every three or four years in the Court of Exchequer at Westminster. The term journey weight is applied at the mint to the weight of certain parcels of com, which were probably considered formerly as a day's work. The journey of gold is 15 troy pounds, which is coined into 701 sovereigns, or 1402 half sovereigns. A journey of silver weighs 00 lbs. troy, and is coined into 792 crowns, or 1584 haJf crowns, or 3900 shillings, or 7920 sixpences. [s. 257]