In the same reign were struck the five guinea, the two guinea piece and the half guinea pieces. The coinage of this monarch's reign, who was only fitted to be the keeper of a bagnio, was so much depreciated, that in the reign of William and Mary, when 572 bags of silver coin were called in of Charles II's reign, it was found to weigh only 9,480 pounds, although the proper weight should have been 18,450 pounds.
The gold quarter guinea was coined by George I, and this coin is remarkable for bearing for the first time the letters "F.D." (Fidei Defensor,) or "Defender of the Faith." George III, an old blockhead as the First George was an old blackguard, coined seven shilling pieces, but these have been withdrawn, as have also the guineas and half guineas, which are now replaced by the sovereign, half sovereign, and crown, which latter coin is valued at five shillings.
When the bad money of Henry VIII was called in, the workmen in the Mint declared that it contained arsenic, and many of them "became sick to death with the savor." For this sickness some venerable idiot ordered them to drink from dead men's skulls, and a warrant was actually obtained whereby the heads of several Catholic priests, which then decorated London Bridge, were taken down and drinking cups were made from them for the workmen.
The present building in use by the Company of Moneyers for a Mint, was erected in 1811 on Tower Hill, and cost with the construction of machinery two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. If one hundred thousand pounds worth of gold bars are sent into the Mint one morning, on the next they will be ready for delivery in sovereigns.
HOW TO MAKE MONEY.
The gold is melted in pots made of black lead, which will not break in annealing, and then the alloy of copper is added (to gold one part in twelve; to silver eighteen pennyweights to a pound), and the mixed metal cast into small bars. The bars then in a heated state are first passed through the rollers, which are of tremendous power, these reducing them to one fourth of their former thickness and increasing them proportionally in length. Then the sheets of metal are passed through the cold rollers, which laminates them to the required thickness of coin.
Now comes the work of the cutting-out machines. There are fifteen of these elegant engines in the same basement, set apart for them.
The bars having been cut into the required strips and thickness, the protecting rim is next raised in the "Marking Room," and after blanching and annealing, they are ready for coining.
There are twelve presses for this purpose, each of which makes a hundred strokes a minute, and at each stroke, above and below, a blank is made into a perfect coin, stamped on both sides and milled at the edge, each press coining about ten thousand pieces of money in one hour. One little boy is alone needed to feed a press with blanks.
The coin is tested before the Lord Chancellor or Chancellor of the Exchequer and a jury of twelve goldsmiths, who are sworn to give a fair judgment, once a year—this being a trial between the Company of Coiners and the Government who own the coin. In a late trial of two hundred pounds weight of gold coin, the bulk weighed just one pennyweight and fifteen grains less than was correct—which is pretty good workmanship.