Holograph draft of MINT00131 (Mint 19/1/334-5) with minor variations

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18 Car. II, chap. v. No moneys leviable & payable by this Act shall be converted to any other use or uses whatsoever other then to the defraying the charge or expence of the Mint or Mints, & of the assaying melting down & wast & coynage of gold & silver & the encouragement of bringing in of gold & silver to be coyned &c. And it is hereby further enacted, That there shall not be issued out of the Exchequer of the said moneys in any one year for the fees & salaries of the Officers of the Mint or Mints & towards the providing maintaining & repairing of the houses Offices & Buildings & other necessaries for assaying melting down & coyning above the summ of three thousand pounds sterling money, & the overplus of the said moneys so kept as aforesaid, shall be employed for & towards the expence wast & charge of assaying melting down & coynage & buying in of gold & silver to coyne & not otherwise.

The salaries from the time of making this Act have amounted to 2600li & sometimes above & there have remained only 400li per annum for the buildings & other necessaries. And the buildings alone have usually amounted to two or three hundred & sometimes almost four hundred pounds per annum

In the 4th & 5t year of her Majesty another Act passed for enlarging the summ of 3000li to that of 3500li per annum without making any other alteration in the former Act. And thereupon the Moneyers were allowed a salary of 400li per annum, & the salarys of the Clerks were intended to be augmented. But several buildings being ready to be augmented it was thought fit to rebuild them first. And these have cost about 900li or above. Two years ago the Engineers shop was rebuilt & cost about 359li, whereof 183li comes into the Account of the year 1712 & 176 is reserved for the next year

In the Indenture of the Mint there is a clause that the charges of making the bullion agreable to standard shall be born & sustained out of the Revenue arising to her Majesty by vertue of the coynage Act: which clause would have been needless had that charge been recconed within the 3000li. This clause is a voucher for the charges of assaying & allay. The Act of 18 Car II is a Voucher for the charges of the Assay Office. And the standing practise of placing the charge of furnaces in the Account of the Master & Worker is a Voucher for that Article