pression, leaving a rising rim on both sides, to prevent 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. M'Culla's copper
notes. They were sent to me by a person well skilled in such
calculations; and therefore I refer them to the reader.[118]
Mr. M'Culla charges good copper at fourteenpence 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. M'Culla's copper is fourteenpence per pound avoirdupois.
Two of Mr. M'Culla's penny notes, one with another, weigh 524 grains.
By which computation, two shillings of his notes, which he
sells for one pound weight, will weigh 6288 grains.
But one pound avoirdupois weighs, as above, 6960 grains.
This difference makes 10 per cent.
to Mr. M'Culla's profit, in point of weight.
The old Patrick and David halfpenny weighs 149 grains.
Mr. M'Culla's halfpenny weighs 131 grains.
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The difference is 18
Which is equal to 10-1/2 per cent.
The English halfpenny of King Charles II. weighs 167 grains.
M'Culla's halfpenny weighs 131 grains.
------
The difference 36
Which difference, allowed a fifth part, is 20 per cent.
ANOTHER COMPUTATION.
Mr. M'Culla allows his pound of copper (coinage included) to be worth
twentypence; for which he demands two shillings.
His coinage he computes at sixpence per pound weight; therefore,
he laying out only twentypence, and gaining fourpence,
he makes per cent. profit, 20
The sixpence per pound weight, allowed for coinage,
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