and perfect pieces there is reason to apprehend, will be recoined into pieces the most deficient that are allowed to be current."
The House then goes on to adopt the principle of limiting the depreciation to be allowed on any single coin, i.e. of making the coins current by weight as well as tale within the limits allowed.
The House next turned its attention to the silver element of the currency. At the outset it was met by the patent fact that the depreciated silver coinage had been made the handle or lever, or point d'avantage, in all the operations against gold. "Whereas," is the recital of the Act of 14 George III. c. 42, "considerable quantities of old silver coin of this realm, or coin purporting to be such, greatly below the standard of the Mint in weight, have been lately imported into this kingdom, and it is expedient that some provision should be made to prevent the practice," etc. The Act therefore decrees the prohibition of importation of light silver coinage into the kingdom, and its confiscation in case of discovery as such. "And be it further enacted ... that no tender in the payment of money made in the silver coin of the realm, of any sum exceeding the sum of £25 at any one time, shall be reputed in law or allowed to be a legal tender within Great Britain or Ireland for more than according to its value by weight, after the rate of 5s. 2d. per oz. of silver, and no person to whom such tender shall be made shall be any way bound thereby or obliged to receive the
same in payment in any manner than as aforesaid; any law, statute, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding."
The importance of this latter epoch-making clause is vital. It is the first enactment of a law of tender in the history of English monetary legislation, and it was the first step towards the shaking off the incubus of that mediæval currency system which was even then only coming to be understood in all its fatal perniciousness. For statesmanship, the only parallel to it is that Act of Henry III. of France, which proved so shortlived in its adoption (see supra, pp. [87]-[88]). It was the first step in the evolution of that system of a safeguarded currency which was finally constructed in 1816.
This Act prohibiting the importation of light silver was renewed in 1776 for a further two years, and was again, in 1778, continued until the 1st day of May 1783, and from thence to the end of the next session of Parliament. On the 21st June 1798 the Act, being then expired, was revived and further continued to the 1st day of June 1799 by a new statute, and on the 12th July 1799 the Act was made perpetual by statute of 39 Geo. III. c. 75.
The later legislative action with regard to silver belongs to the final construction of the English currency system. In the main, the recoinage of gold was accomplished in the year 1774, though it lingered over the three succeeding years as appears by the items in the Appropriation Acts.
The accounts of grants for recoinage were as follows:—
| 1774. | The first grant | £250,000 | 0 | 0 |
| 1775. | To the bank for receiving the deficient gold coin | 46,846 | 0 | 0 |
| For extraordinary charges of the Mint | 22,824 | 19 | 0 | |
| 1776. | Further grant | 92,421 | 14 | 1 1⁄4 |
| 1778. | Further grant | 105,227 | 8 | 3 |
| £517,320 | 2 | 2 1⁄4 | ||