Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/301

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PROJECT ABOUT HALFPENCE.
293

one farthing for the expense of coinage, more than it shall really stand them in.

Thirdly, They will, for a limited term of seven or ten years, as shall be thought proper upon mature consideration, pay gold and silver, without any defalcation, for all their own coin that shall be returned upon their hands.

Fourthly, They will take care that the coins shall have a deep impression, leaving a rising rim on both sides, to prevent their being defaced in a long time; and the edges shall be milled.

I suppose they need not be very apprehensive of counterfeits, which it will be difficult to make so as not to be discovered: for it is plain that those bad halfpence called raps, are so easily distinguished, even from the most worn genuine halfpenny, that nobody will now take them for a farthing, although under the great present want of change.

I shall here subjoin some computations relating to Mr. McCulla's copper notes. They were sent to me by a person well skilled in such calculations: and therefore I refer them to the reader.


Mr. McCulla charges good copper at fourteen pence per pound; but I know not whether he means avoirdupois or Troy weight.

avoirdupois is sixteen ounces to a pound 6960 grains.
A pound Troy weight 5760 grains.


Mr. McCulla's copper is fourteenpence per pound avoirdupois.

Two of Mr. McCulla's penny notes, one with another, weigh 524 grains.
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