Draft of MINT00167 (Mint 19/1/290)

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How new standard Trial pieces may be made

Vpon an order of the Queen or Council for making & delivering new standard trial pieces of Gold & silver The Lord Chancellour of great Britain sends his letter to the Wardens & Company of Goldsmiths to return him the names of an able Iury to make the standards. The Iury for this purpose has been of 12 or 15 persons.

The names being returned, his Lordship sends his Warrant by his Serjeant at arms or Serjeants Deputy to summon the Iury by their names to attend his Lordship at a time appointed by him.

And when they attend, his Lordship calls to his Serjeant at arms for his Warrant for summoning them & appoints the same to be delivered to the Remembrancers Deputy who attends with a copy of an Oath to be given to the Iury, & the Oath being administred the Lord Chancellour gives the Iury in Charge to make the said two Standards with all the skill & exactnes imaginable, & to indent & divide each into six equal parts according to their best endeavours & to inscribe & print the same, & appoints the time when & where to attend with their Veredict & with the said indented trial pieces.

Which being done his Lordship delivers the said Trial pieces or orders them to be delivered according to her Majestys directions upon Receipts mutually given for the same, & sends the Veredict & Receipts to the Lord Treasurer or Commissioners of the Treasury to be entered into the Treasury & kept by the Deputy Remembrancer.

The print has been that of the money suppose of a Guinea on the Gold & a shilling on the silver, & the Inscriptions have been as follows. This standard commixed of 22 carrets of fine gold & 2 carrets of allay in the pound weight Troy of England 20 Aug. 1605 This standard commixed of 11oz 2dwt of fine silver & 18dwt of allay in the pound weight Troy of England made 20 Aug. 1605. And the like inscriptions may be still used putting great Britain for England.

One of the last Trial pieces of each metal remains now in the Treasury with the Deputy Chamberlains of the Exchequer for trial of the Pix, One with the Warden of the Mint for trying the moneys & deciding questions about the bullion, One with the Master & Worker for making the moneys, One with the Wardens of the Company of Goldsmiths for trying their works of gold & silver, One in the Treasury in Scotland for trying the moneys there with the General & other Officers of the Mint in Scotland for making the moneys there. Perhaps it will be more conformable to the Act of Vnion that the moneys of both Mints be henceforward tried before the Queen & Council after one & the same manner with the standards of great Britain by a Iury of Goldsmiths & be made & examined by two Trial pieces in both Mints alike, & for that end that one of the Trial pieces made for Scotland be be kept the by the Master of that Mint for making the moneys, & the other by the Warden for trying them before delivery, & for deciding controversies between the Master & the Merchant about the Bullion, as is done in the Tower.

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The Trial pieces may be delivered to the same Officers & for the same uses as formerly, unless that which was delivered to the Treasury in Scotland be now delivered to the General & Warden of the Mint at Edinborough & that which was formerly delivered to the General & Officers of that Mint be now delivered to the General & Master of the same Mint. For it seems conformable to the Act of Vnion that