It may, however, be worthy consideration, whether these tokens should not be wholly suppressed, and the offence of fabricating any Copper pieces passing, or intended to pass "as, for, or in lieu of" the lawful Copper Coin, be made felony: and that such tokens should in all respects be considered as actual Counterfeit Coin, and treated accordingly: or, at all events, that persons issuing and circulating such tokens should be liable to a severe penalty; and bound to pay the holder, on demand, the full denominated value.
7. The mischievous agents of the Dealers in base Money, the persons who keep Flatting-mills, and other machinery, for preparing, and rolling their metals, for being coined into base Money, are not at present within the reach of punishment by any existing law. Although by preparing the metal for the subsequent process of stamping, they are in fact parties concerned, without whose aid the Coinage of what are called Flats, or milled money, could not be carried on.—The chief difficulty is in punishing persons for producing an article which may be turned into coach and harness ornaments, buttons, and many purposes as well as base Money.
☞ With respect to this whole tribe of dangerous manufacturers, whose trade and abilities are so liable to be perverted to iniquitous purposes, it has been under consideration to regulate them, by legislative measures, to the following effect: viz. "That no person, except those employed in the mints, shall erect, set up, or use, or knowingly have in possession any cutting engine for cutting round blanks by the force of a screw out of fatted bars or sheets of Copper, or other metal; or any stamping press, fly, rolling mill, flatting mill, or other instrument for stamping, flatting, or marking metals, or which, with the assistance of any matrix, Stamp, or dye, will stamp or mark Copper or other metals, or prepare the same for stamping or marking, without first giving notice thereof in writing to persons authorized to keep an entry and registry thereof, containing the Christian and Surnames of the owners of such instruments, and describing the use thereof, and the house or other place in which the same is intended to be erected, set up, used or kept; and to give the like notice on any removal, under a certain penalty, recoverable as in the case of Hair Powder, and other revenue laws."—It is believed, on the best authority, that the Licence here proposed (especially as it would subject the parties to no pecuniary burden) would meet the approbation of the principal manufacturers, on account of the facilities which it would afford in detecting and in embarrassing those who set up machinery for unlawful purposes.
8. No provision is made in any Act against, and consequently no punishment is inflicted on, the offence of buying base money to recolour it—☞ This is a modern device, and may be remedied, as it seems, by enacting—"That every person who shall buy, take or receive any blank or round piece of blanched copper, mixed metal, or metal of any sort whatsoever, for the purpose of colouring the same, or causing the same to be coloured, or with intent or knowledge that the same shall or will be coloured, or which shall have been coloured, so as to pass for the current Gold or Silver Coins of Great Britain or Ireland, shall be punishable by a fine of £.20 and one month's imprisonment; and that any person who shall buy or sell, or offer to buy or sell any piece of blanched Copper, &c. which may formerly have passed as or for such current Gold or Silver Coin, shall be punishable by a fine of 40s. recoverable in a summary way; or by one month's imprisonment."—This last penalty will reach the Jew Boys, who cry bad shillings, and will prove, it is hoped, an effectual check by means of a very mild punishment upon shopkeepers, tradesmen, and others, who inadvertently sell defaced counterfeit shillings without reflecting that although they obtain 3d. in this traffick for what is not intrinsically worth one farthing, that the same counterfeits are again coloured, and received by them at the full value of 12d.
9. No existing law gives any power to Magistrates upon information on oath, to search for, or seize Counterfeit Coin of this realm in the custody or possession of known Dealers or reputed Utterers; although these Dealers and Utterers are now the persons (and not the actual Coiners) who keep the base money: neither is there any power to seize base money conveying in coaches or waggons going into the country. Under this shelter the Dealers are enabled to hold markets for sale in their houses, where they frequently keep large stocks; and base money is also sent into the country without the least hazard of detection or seizure.
☞ Here again the partial remedy introduced by 37 Geo. III. c. 126, should be extended and applied.
10. No power is directly given by any existing law, (not even by the modern Act last mentioned) though upon the most pointed information, to search the houses or workshops of coiners in the night time. Hence it is that detection becomes so difficult, and the evil increases, because the law in some measure shields the offenders from discovery. Since in Lottery offences (which are certainly greatly inferior in their enormity to Coining) a power is granted to break open houses in the night-time, surely no reason can be assigned why treasonable offences, in Coining base Money, should not in this respect be on the same footing. Unless a positive power is given to search in the night, and suddenly to force open doors or windows, it will be impossible to detect the Makers of Cast Money.
11. The act 11 Geo. III. cap. 40. gives a power to Magistrates to issue their warrants to search for tools and implements used in the Copper Coinage, (with regard to Silver or Gold Coinage of this realm no such power is given); but, what is very singular, no punishment whatever can be inflicted by any existing law on the owner or proprietor of such tools for making Copper Money, nor upon the person in whose house they are found; and if when such search is made, there should be found only plain Halfpence, or Irish Harps, or evasive Halfpence or Farthings, varying in the Stamp in any degree from the current Coin of the Realm, so as not to be of the exact similitude, (a practice which has now for some time very much prevailed) the act in question is defeated; inasmuch as the crime of felony does not attach to offences short of Coining Copper Money of the similitude of the current Coin of the Realm. The Coinage of base Copper therefore goes on with impunity; because it is owing to the carelessness of the parties themselves if ever they permit the law to reach them.
12. The laws now in being give no power to seize Counterfeit Halfpence; either in the hands of the Dealers, who keep a kind of open market at their own houses every morning to supply Jew Boys, who cry bad Shillings, or in those of many others in various trades, who become the channels of circulation to a vast extent without risk or inconvenience. Neither does the statute law authorize the apprehension of Jew Boys, who go out every morning loaded with counterfeit Copper, which they exchange for bad shillings.
☞ To remedy this part of the evil, it is proposed, "That on complaint made to any one Justice of Peace upon oath, that there is just cause to suspect that any person is concerned in making or using, or has in their custody any unlawful puncheon, stamp, die, mould, &c. made for the purpose, or which may be applied to the purpose, of counterfeiting the Gold, Silver, or Copper Coin of the Kingdoms of Great Britain or Ireland; or of making or manufacturing any pieces of metal intended to pass as such coin, or any cutting engine for cutting round blanks by means of force applied to a screw, or flatted bars of metal, &c. or any wash or material which will produce the colour of Gold or silver, or copper, or any round blank of base metal or mixed metal, or of brass copper, or lead, so as to resemble such coin; or who hath been concerned in buying, selling, taking in exchange, receiving, or putting off any Gold, Silver, or Copper Money, not melted or cut, at a lower rate or value than the same doth import, such Justice may, by a warrant under his hand, cause the house, out-house, and other places occupied by such suspected person to be searched, either by night or by day; and if any of the articles hereinbefore mentioned, or any counterfeit or pretended coin, blanks, or round pieces of metal be found, the parties to be seized, and, with the said articles, brought before a Justice, and such articles may be afterwards used in evidence, and then broken, defaced, and disposed of as the Court or Justices shall direct.