"That your Petitioners have, for a series of time, been of infinite service to those industrious men, the Tribes of Levi, and Manassa, who distributed your Petitioners, in the most plentiful manner, to their own great advantage:
"That your Petitioners have, in some manner, been the means of peopling Botany Bay, as numbers of persons, who were first in the habit of forming your Petitioners, afterwards mounted to the honour of making shillings, and sixpences:
"That your Petitioners, with great sorrow, perceive, by the effect of a new coinage of Penny, and Twopenny Pieces, that their existence is rapidly on the decline:
"Your Petitioners therefore pray that their grievances may be taken into consideration: and they will, as in duty bound, ever pray.
Bad Halfpence."
—(Times, Aug. 17, 1795.)
"FALSE COINAGE.
"The numerous evils arising from the now general circulation of Base Money, are too well known, to make it necessary that they should be dwelt on by us. We have always considered the different Administrations of this Country, as highly blameable for not paying more attention, than they have done, to prevent the nefarious practices which are introduced in the introduction of almost every species of Counterfeit Coin into the circulation of the country, because it certainly has the means in its own power, of lessening the mischief, by issuing a new coinage, particularly of Halfpence, which are, now, so generally bad, and so profligately circulated, that scarce a good halfpenny is to be seen.... The vast increase, and the extensive circulation, of base Money, particularly of late years, ... almost exceeds credibility, and the dexterity, and ingenuity, of these criminal people have enabled them to finish the different kinds of counterfeit Money, in so masterly a manner, that it has become extremely difficult, for the common observer, to distinguish the base Coin, now in circulation, from the worn out Silver, from the Mint. And, so systematic has this nefarious traffic become, that the great dealers, who in most instances are the employers of the Coiners, execute orders for the Town, and Country, with the same regularity as other manufacturers in fair branches of trade. Scarce a waggon, or coach, departs from the metropolis, that does not carry boxes, and parcels, of base coin, to the camps, seaports, and manufacturing towns, insomuch, that the country is deluged with counterfeit Money. In London, regular markets, in various public, and private, houses, are held by the principal Dealers, where Hawkers, Pedlars, fraudulent Horse-dealers, Unlicensed Lottery Office Keepers, Gamblers at Fairs, Itinerant Jews, Irish Labourers, Servants of Toll Gatherers, and Hackney-Coach Owners, fraudulent Publicans, Market Women, Rabbit Sellers, Fish Cryers, Barrow Women, and many who would not be suspected, are regularly supplied with counterfeit Copper, and Silver, with the advantages of nearly 100 per cent. in their favour: and thus it happens, that through these various channels, immense quantities of base Money get into circulation, while an evident diminution of the Mint Coinage, is apparent to every common observer.... Discoveries have been recently made, of no less than 120 persons, in the metropolis, and the country, who are employed, principally, in coining, and selling, Base Money: and this, independent of the numerous horde of utterers, who chiefly support themselves by passing it at its full value.
"It will scarcely be credited, that of these criminal people who have either been detected, prosecuted, or convicted, within the last seven years, there stand upon the register of the Solicitor of the Mint, no less than 608 names! and yet the evil increases rapidly. And when it is known, that two persons can finish from £200, to £300, in base silver, in six days, and that three people, within the same period will stamp the like amount, in Copper, and when the number of known coiners are taken into the calculation, the aggregate in the course of the year must be immense!"—(Times, Oct. 5, 1796.)