Draft of MINT00633 (Mint 19/2/356)

<361r>

To the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of his Majesties Treasury.

May it please yoer Lordships

In obedience to yoer Lordships verbal Order that I should lay before your Lordships a Proposal or Memorial for coyning Copper Money: I humbly represent that the Copper be imported into a Mint by weight in clean barrs nealed & of a due fineness & size for cutting out of them blanks of such a weight as his Majesty shall appoint; that the finenes be such that the barrs when heated red hot will spread thin under the hammer without cracking; that the scissel be delivered back to the Importer by weight, & the Importer be paid for the excess of the Copper imported above the scissel returned back after the rate of              per pound weight Averdupois; that it be in the power of the Mint - master to refuse such copper as doth not bear the assay or is not well sized nealed & cleand; that when a parcel of copper money, suppose half a Tunn or a Tunn, is coyned, the same be well mixed by shovelling it forwards & backwards in a heap before sufficient witnesses, & then assayed in four or five distant places & the assays entred in books, & the tale of the heap estimated by taking a medium of all the assays; & the money then put into baggs by weight to be delivered to the people, & the weight & price of the baggs entred in books, & the weight of three or four pence allowed in every quarter of an hundred weight for turning the scales & preventing clamours about the weight & tale. And out of every heap assayed, four or five pieces may be put into a Box & kept to be examined at the end of the year before whom yoer Lordships shall appoint, & a Remedy of an half penny in the pound weight allowed for errors. And the Mint-Master may account annually to the King

The Officer requisite in this service are

A Mint-master with a Deputy.

A Smith to fourge the Dyes & Puncheons.

A Graver for graving & polishing them.

A Moneyer or body of Monyers for cutting out the blanks & coyning them & taking care of the coyning tools.

A Clerk for entring the proceedings in Books.

Another Clerk (who may be called the kings Clerk) for doing the like in behalf of the king & his people, & for making a Controllment Roll of all the Coynage yearly upon Oath.

The Assays may be made by the Moneyer or Smith or any Labourer

If the barrs be not nealed & cleaned by the Importer, the blanks may be nealed & cleaned by the Moneyer.

All which is most humbly submitted to yoer Lordships great wisdome.