Draft of MINT00611 (Mint 19/2/305) with further details on processes for testing copper
To the most Honble the Earl of Oxford & Earl Mortimer Lord High Treasurer of great Britain.
May it please yor Lordp
I humbly beg leave to lay before yor Lordp that the Master & Worker of her Majts Mint is not obliged to receive all the gold & silver brought into her Majts Mint to be coyned. If any gold be brought into her Majts Mint in wch is not tough, he returns it back to be toughned at the Importers charge tho it be standard. If any gold or silver be not eavenly mixed he returns it back to be remelted at the Importers charge. If it be not neare to standard he returns it back to be refined at the Impor{illeg}ters charge. And to judge whether it be fit to be received or returned back is left to his discretion. And by parity of reason he should not be obliged to receive all sorts of copper to be coyned. If it be not fine or not tough & malleable or ill coloured or otherwise {illeg}faulty, he should be at liberty to return it back to ye owner to be made fit for the ownerMint at the Importers charge. Otherwise it will be difficult to c{illeg}oyn the money of good malleable copper., witho{illeg}ut allowing for the charge loss & hazzards {illeg} of such any undertaking.
There is an assay of copper by refining a small parcel & thence recconing what will be the wast & charges & trouble in ref{illeg}ining a Tunn of such copper., & setting a value upon it accordingly. And such an Assay is usefull in buying coarse copper to be refined, but is of little or no use in buying fine copper. The price of fine copper depends upon the malleability & tw{illeg}o parcels of copper wch by such an assay are equally fine may differ very much in their price malleability, & by consequence in their price. Copper refined to that degree & in that manner as to be malleable when red hot without cracking when red hot is the fittest material for manufact{illeg}uring into all sorts of copper vessels & by consequence for money. The Swedish copper {illeg} of money is of this standard. ABut if it be made much more malleable the wire drawers will give two or{illeg}lness that sets a price upon it & the triall by the hammer hot & cold hammering & bending hot & cold that determins the ductility. This is the triallassay by wch the Refiners of copper know when their copper is fully fine & ready to vitrify & by consequence the proper assay for receiving fine copper into the Mintto be melted into barrs. For it determins the fineness & the malleability at once, no coarse copper being malleable.
By the estimates of W{illeg}orkmen the charges of repairing & fitting up the houses in the Irish Mint for a copper coynage of Copper will amount to about 1456li {illeg}. And the putting up a furnace in the melting house with all things requisite {illeg}answerable for making an experiment in casting will cost about 32li more. And a small parcel of copper <313r> for making an experiment may cost about 20li more. If yor Lordp please to impress 200li to me for this service upon account, it may be repaid out of the copper coynage. All wch &c
Source
MINT 19/2/312-13, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK12 March 1713/4, c. 618 words.