Covering letter for a formulaic statement of accounts for each mint to complete prior to its being closed down [April - September 1698]

<251r>

Mint Office in the Tower of London
Apr. 16. 1698.

Sir

The business of the Country Mints now drawing towards an end, the Lords of the Treasury are minded that we should lay your Accounts before them & for that end I desire you with the assistance of the Master & Comptroller to fill up the blanks in the inclosed paper with all the care & exactness you can & then to return it to me or a fair copy thereof signed by you all that we may rely upon it.

Where nothing was imported (as perhaps in the branch of wrought Plate between Nov 4 96 & Iul. 1 97, or in that of publick monies since Mar. 1) you are to fill up the blanks with cyphers. And so in the two last columns cyphers are to be put where nothing remained due to Importers, or nothing was reserved for melting refining & coyning. And in the two columns under Ingots & Sweep if in any Case you did not add the sweep to the Ingots, in that case set down the weight of the Ingots alone with the letter I before it.

If you do not know the tale of the new monies made out of every branch imported, set down the whole tale or summ of the monies made out of all the branches together from time to time, that is from the beginning of the coynage to Nov 4 96, thence to Iul. 1, 97, thence to Nov. 4, 97 & thence to Mar. 1 or to the day of your signing the paper. Over against the word summ in the inclosed paper you have blanks for this purpose. But if you do not know these summs nor can collect them out of your books then send me in a Letter the weight & tale of all the new monies coyned till such & such periods of time when you did both weigh & tell all the moneys then coyned, dividing the whole coynage into five or six periods.

Let the ablest of your Clerks be imployed in consulting & comparing your books & computing what is necessary out of them, but trust not the computation of a single Clerk nor any other eyes then your own. And let the inclosed or a fair copy thereof filled up & signed by the Officers be sent back in a week or 10 days after the receipt hereof or sooner if you can. And if there remain any blanks which you cannot fill up in that time, you may keep a copy of the Paper you send me, to be filled up more completely afterwards & sent to me as soon as you have finished it. I have sent the same Papers to all the Mints that your Accompts may be conformable to one another & thereby the better fitted for the view of the Lords & put in a method for Auditing. Tis by Mr Neals consent & desire as well as by the suggestion of the Lords that I take care of this matter & therefore I doubt not but you will have all the assistance his Deputy & the Controller can give you & the free inspection of their Books. I am

Your loving Friend
Is. Newton