or COINING, the art of making money, as performed either by the hammer or mill.

Formerly the fabric of coins was different from what it is at present. They cut a large plate of metal into several little squares, the corners of which were cut off with scissors. After having shaped these pieces, so as to render them perfectly conformable, in point of weight, to the standard piece, they took each piece in hand again, to make it exactly round by a gentle hammering. This was called a planchet, and was fit for immediate coining. Then engravers prepared, as they still do, a couple of steel matrices in form of dyes, cut and terminated by a flat surface, rounded off at the edges. They engraved or stamped on it the hollow of a head, a cross, a cutcheon, or any other figure, according to the custom of the times, within a short legend. As one of these dyes was to remain dormant, and the other moveable, the former ended in a square prism, that it might be introduced into the square hole of the block, which, being fixed very fast, kept the dye as steady as any vice could have done. The planchet of metal was horizontally laid upon this inferior matrix, to receive the stamp of it on one side, and that of the upper dye, wherewith it was covered, on the other. This moveable dye, having its round engraved surface resting upon the planchet, had at its opposite extremity a flat, square, and larger surface, upon which they gave several heavy blows, with a hammer of an enormous size, till the double stamp was sufficiently, in relievo, impressed on each side of the planchet. This being finished, was immediately succeeded by another, and they thus became a standard coin, which had the degree of fineness of the weight and mark determined by the judgment of the inspectors, to make it good current money; the strong tempering which was and is still given to the two dyes, rendering them capable of bearing those repeated blows. Coining has been considerably improved and rendered expeditious, by several ingenious machines, and by a wise application of the surest physical experiments to the methods of mixing, dyeing, and stamping the different metals.

The three finest instruments the mint-man uses, are the laminating engine; the machine for making the impressions on the edges of coins; and the mill.

After they have taken the laminae, or plates of metal, out of the mould into which they are cast, they do not beat them on the anvil, as was formerly done, but make them pass and repass between the several rollers of the laminating engine, which being gradually brought closer and closer, to each other, presently give the lamina its uniform and exact thickness. Instead of dividing the lamina into small squares, they at once cut clean out of it as many planchets as it can contain, by means of a sharp steel trepan, of a roundish figure, hollow within, and of a proportionable diameter, to shape and cut off the piece at one and the same time. After these planchets have been prepared and weighed with standard pieces, filed or scraped, to get off the superfluous part of the metal, and then boiled and made clean, they arrive, at last, at the machine (fig. 1.), which marks them upon the edge; and finally, the mill (fig. 2.), which, squeezing each plate of them singly between the two dyes, brought near each other with one blow, forces the two surfaces or fields of the piece to fill exactly all the vacancies of the two figures engraved hollow. The engine which serves to laminate lead, gives a sufficient notion of that which serves to flatten gold and silver laminae between rollers of a lesser size.

The principal pieces of the machine (fig. 1.), to fig. 1., stamp coins on the edge, are two steel laminae, about a line thick. One half of the legend, or of the ring, is engraved on the thickness of one of the laminae, and the other half on the thickness of the other; and these two laminae are straight, although the planchet marked with them be circular.

When they stamp a planchet, they first put it between the laminae in such a manner, as that these being each of them laid flat upon a copperplate, which is fastened upon a very thick wooden table, and the planchet being likewise laid flat upon the same plate, the edge of the planchet may touch the two laminae on each side, and in their thick part.

One of these laminae is immovable, and fastened with several screws; the other slides by means of a dented wheel, which takes into the teeth that are on the surface of the lamina. This sliding lamina makes the planchet turn in such a manner, that it remains stamped on the edge, when it has made one turn. Only crown and half-crown pieces can bear the impression of letters on the thickness of their edges.

The coining engine or mill is so fitted for dispatch, fig. 2., that a single man may stamp 20,000 planchets in one day: gold, silver, and copper planchets, are all of them coined with a mill, to which the coining squares (fig. 3.) commonly called dyes are fastened; that of the face under, in a square box furnished with male and female screws, to fix and keep it steady; and the other above, in a little box garnished with the same screws, to fasten the coining square. The planchet chet is laid flat on the square of the effigy, which is dormant; and they immediately pull the bar of the mill by its cords, which causes the screw feet within it to turn. This enters into the female screw, which is in the body of the mill, and turns with so much strength, that by pulling the upper square upon that of the effigy, the planchet, violently pressed between both squares, receives the impression of both at one pull, and in the twinkling of an eye.

The planchet thus stamped and coined, goes through a final examination of the mint wardens, from whose hands it goes into the world.

In the COINING of Medals, the process is the same in effect with that of money, the principal difference consisting in this, that money having but a small relievo, receives its impression at a single stroke of the engine; whereas for medals, the height of their relievo makes it necessary that the stroke be repeated several times: to this end the piece is taken out from between the dyes, heated, and returned again; which process, in medallions and large medals, is repeated 15 or 20 times before the full impression be given: care must be taken, every time the planchet is removed, to take off the superfluous metal stretched beyond the circumference with a file. Medallions, and medals of a high relievo, are usually first cast in sand, by reason of the difficulty of stamping them in the press, where they are put only to perfect them; in regard the sand does not leave them clear, smooth, and accurate enough. Therefore we may see that medals receive their form and impression by degrees, whereas money receives them all at once.

British COINAGE, both by the beauty of the engraving, and by the invention of the impressions on the edges, that admirable expedient for preventing the alteration of the species, is carried to the utmost perfection.

It was only in the reign of King William III. that the hammer money ceased to be current in England, where till then it was struck in that manner, as in other nations. Before the hammer specie was called in, the English money was in a wretched condition, having been filed and clipped by natives as well as foreigners, insomuch that it was scarce left of half the value: the retrieving this distressed state of the English money is looked upon as one of the glories of King William's reign.

The British coinage is now wholly performed in the Tower of London, where there is a corporation for it, under the title of the mint. Formerly there were here, as there are still in other countries, the rights of feinorage and braffage; but since the eighteenth year of King Charles II., there is nothing taken either for the king or for the expenses of coining; so that weight is returned for weight to any person who carries their gold and silver to the Tower.

The species coined in Great Britain are esteemed contraband goods, and not to be exported. All foreign species are allowed to be sent out of the realm, as well as gold and silver in bars, ingots, dust, &c.

Barbary COINAGE, particularly that of Fez and Tunis, is under no proper regulations, as every goldsmith, Jew, or even private person, undertakes it at pleasure; which practice renders their money exceedingly bad, and their commerce very unsafe.

Muscovite COINAGE. In Muscovy there is no other coin struck but silver, and that only in the cities of Moscow, Novgorod, Tver, and Pskov, to which may be added Peterburgh. The coinage of each of these cities is let out to farm, and makes part of the royal revenue.

Persian COINAGE. All the money made in Persia is struck with a hammer, as is that of the rest of Asia; and the same may be understood of America, and the coasts of Africa, and even Muscovy: the king's duty, in Persia, is seven and a half per cent. for all the moneys coined, which are lately reduced to silver and copper, there being no gold coin there except a kind of medals, at the accession of a new sophi.

Spanish COINAGE is esteemed one of the least perfect in Europe. It is settled at Seville and Segovia, the only cities where gold and silver are struck.