A.D. 1689 
—1776. 
afforded 
profitable 
opportuni- 
fies for 
clipping 
and sweat- 
tng the 
coin 
434 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM 
more noticeable!. The attempt to keep heavy and light 
pieces in circulation together proved a failure, and only 
resulted in the constant melting down of new coins as issued 
from the Mint. 
In the meantime the old hammered money was being 
seriously maltreated by dealers in coin. Some of the pieces 
were thicker than others, and they were filed down to the 
usual size; others were stamped with the impression at one 
side, and the margin left bare was trimmed off; at first the 
men who tampered with the coinage were “pretty modest ” 
in clipping. Defective coins were only occasionally met 
with in 1672, but after 1685% the practice became a very 
serious evil indeed. Not only did clipping become a regular 
business, but the old and worn coin lent itself to fraudulent 
imitation, and a considerable amount of base money was put 
into circulation by coiners®, Altogether, the condition of 
tho’ never clip'd, did many of ‘em in their weight and value want or exceed the 
legal Standard in the under written disproportion, viz. 
Some 
of 
‘the erowr 
njo~- 
th- 
t}- 
the sixpence« 
*, 
'\ crowns 
3 crowns 
shillings 
sixpences 
0 / were not of an 
exact assize 
Now when pieces so very ill siz’d as these came out of the Ming, and the lighter 
pass'd under the same Name, and at the same value with the heavyest, this 
presented the Clippers with too fair an opportunity of rounding the weighty 
pieces with the Sheers and the file, til they reduc’d ‘em to ab equall weight, and 
size with the rest; for they were pretty modest in the practice of clipping, 'ti) 
after the year 1685.” Op. cit. 63. 
1 The fundamental principle in Locke's argument on the subject of coinage 
was the identity in exchange value between one ounce of silver and another, 
Further Considerations concerning raising the Value of Money (1695), p. 2. But 
Barbon showed conclusively that within certain limits, silver, which has the 
stamp of money, may circulate for more than its value as bullion, Discourse 
concerning Coining the New Money Lighter, p. 28. This was indeed a matter of 
common experience at the time, Review of the Universal Remedy for all Diseases 
incident to the Coin (1696), p. 12 (Brit. Mus. 1139. d. 6 (2)). The writer points out 
that * every Degree of Currancy given to defective Coin. is a new Lock put upon 
the Good,” p. 39. 
3 Haynes, op. cit. 64, 67. 
8 Haynes, op. cit. 66, 69. They fabricated base money which looked like old 
eoin that had been clipped; tb. 77.