SEIGNORAGE, is a royalty or prerogative of the king, whereby he claims an allowance of gold and silver bought in the mass to be exchanged for coin. As seigniorage, out of every pound weight of gold, the king had for his coin 5 s. of which he paid to the master of the mint sometimes 1 s. and sometimes 1 s. 6 d. Upon every pound weight of silver, the seigniorage answered to the king in the time of Edward III. was 18 penny-weights, which then amounted to about 1 s. out of which he sometimes paid 8 d. at others 9 d. to the master. In the reign of king Henry V. the king's seigniorage of every pound of silver was 15 d. &c.