Petitions for a licence to coin £180,000 in copper and criticises Newton's specimen copper coins as being made of inferior copper and given a high artificial gloss which will soon wear off James Bertie c. 420 words The Newton Project Oxford 2017 Newton Project, University of Oxford

This metadata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

 4 March 1713/14, c. 420 words. Treasury

[See T. 27/21.151, MINT01046, for the Treasury's referral of this petition to the Mint, 12 March 1713/4, printed in NC, 6: 74-5 (erroneously naming the applicant as William instead of James Bertie). See also Craig, NATM, 97-8: Newton considered £120,000 adequate as the total sum of copper coin in circulation.]

 MINT 19/2/385-6, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK UKSurreyKew, RichmondNational Archives MINT 19/2/385-6 4 March 1713/14 English Unknown Hand (1) Unknown Hand (2) MintCopper Coinage Catalogue information compiled by Rob Iliffe, Peter Spargo & John Young Catalogue exported to teiHeader by Michael Hawkins Transcribed by Will Scott
385334

4th: Mar: 17134

My Lord When I wasI was last wth:with yr:your Lsp:Lordship, after ye:the Officers of the mint were heard yr:your stay was so short, that I had not an opportunity of mentioning some observations I then made on what passed. I observed yr:your Lsp:Lordship did not expect or any one offer to cut a pound of copper into less than 21d of half pence & farthings, or to make them of better metal than fine malleable copper, nor yet to do it on those terms unless ye:the Publick would be at the charge of ye:the wear & tear of Tools, wch:which charge by my proposalls will be sav'd; so taht I think nothing hath been offerd hitherto so advantageous to yethe Publick. As to ye:the impression, or stamp, I have propos'd it shall be such as yr:your Lsp:Lordship shall approve of; Therefore if you have no objection to ye:the weight nor standard of ye:the metal, yr:your Lsp:Lordship is sure to have a good impression, because I am not to proceed in coining 'till I have produc'd such a Die as shall be approv'd by yourself. I beg leave to observe yt:that the specimens produc'd by Sr:Sir I: Newton are not fine malleable copper, & have an artificial Gloss wch:which will soo wear off, & then will look like those coyn'd in K:King Williams Reign. Mr: Peyton produced one of piece wch:which he call'd fine plate Copper & said that could not be coin'd at less than 23d ꝑper pound I am contented his specimen shall be my standard, and do not desire a greater profit than will acrue from 21d a pound, but i yr:your Lsp:Lordship thinks fir to allow 23d, the difference wch:which is 2d. in the quantity propos'd, will be between 18, and 20,000li, wch:which your Lsp:Lordship may dispose of as you shall think fit. I have some objections 386 to putting the Queens arms on the reverse as in other coin wch:which I think unanswerable, & shall be glad to communicate to your Lsp:Lordship whenever you will give me leave to wait on you. Had I heard any proposalls more advantageous to the publick than mine, I should have forborn giving yr:your Lsp:Lordship any farther trouble, but since n'one are yet made of equall advantage, I hope yr:your Lsp:Lordship will interceed wth:with Her Majesty in favour of him who has always been Your Lordships Most Obedient Servant Ia: Bertie Copper Mr Bertie: By mare: 4: 171314 10 Mar 171314 To Offrs:Officers of the Mint