Hall marks on gold & silver plate; illustrated with revised tables of annual date letters employed in the assay offices of England, Scotland and Ireland - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ...As it is now, a premium is held out for placing the forged marks on large and important pieces of plate. Before the introduction of milling the edges of coins, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the dishonest were accustomed to clip small pieces carefully from the edges, which being struck, were not always in a true circle when they were issued from the Mint. Although the weight was diminished, the fraud was not easily detected. This system of peculation was, it was thought, put a stop to by the milled edges being placed upon the coins in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. But although baffled by this invention, the ingenious thieves discovered another system of fraud, professionally Law Reports, Q. B. D., Vol. 7, p. 465. called "sweating." They placed a large number of sovereigns loose in a coarse linen bag; this being violently shaken, rubbed off portions of gold which adhered to the sides of the bag, which was then burnt in an iron vessel, and the particles collected together. The coins after this operation had the appearance of being worn by circulation, until about thirty years ago the whole coinage was called into the Mint and allowed for by weight instead of being taken as currency. The public, upon whom the loss fell to a great extent, became more careful, and rejected the gold unless of full weight, and sovereign scales came into general use. This habit of weighing sovereigns was in time discontinued, and people judged from the appearance of the coin only. A more wholesome system of disintegration was then conceived, viz., filing off the edges of the gold coin and afterwards milling them afresh, the size and weight being thus considerably reduced, but the fresh appearance of the surface preserved. At the Liverpool Sessions in...