to finish from sixty to eighty pounds sterling week. Of halfpence, two or three persons can stamp and finish to the nominal amount of at least two hundred pounds in six days.

When it is considered that there are seldom less than between forty and fifty coinages or private mints, almost constantly employed in London, and in different country towns, in stamping and fabri cating base silver and copper money, the evil may justly be said to have arrived at an enormous height. It is indeed true, that these people have been a good deal interrupted and embarrassed, from time to time, by detections and convictions but while the laws are so inapplicable to the new tricks and devices they have resorted to, these convictions are only a drop in the bucket: while such encouragements are held out, the execution of one rogue only makes room for another to take up his customers; and indeed as the offence of selling is only a misdemeanor, it is no unusual thing for the wife and family of a culprit, or convicted seller of base money, to carry on the business, and to support him luxuriously in Newgate, until the expiration of the year and day's imprisonment, which is generally the punishment inflicted for this species of offence.

It has not been an unusual thing for several of these dealers to hold a kind of market, every morning, where from forty to fifty of the German Jew boys are regularly supplied with counterfeit halfpence, which they dispose of in the course of the day in different streets and lanes of the metropolis, for bad shillings, at about threepence each. Care is always taken that the person who cries bad shillings shall have a companion near him, who carries the halfpence, and takes charge of the purchased

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chased shillings (which are not cut:) so as to elude the detection of the officers of the police, in the event of being searched.

The bad shillings thus purchased, are received in payment by the employers of the boys, for the bad halfpence supplied by them, at the rate of four shillings a dozen; and are generally resold to smashers, at a profit of two shillings a dozen; who speedily recolour them, and introduce them again into circulation, at their full nominal value.

The boys will generally clear from five to seven shillings a day, by this fraudulent business; which they almost uniformly spend, during the evening, in riot and debauchery; returning pennyless in the morning to their old trade.

Thus it is that the frauds upon the public multiply beyond all possible conception, while the tradesman, who, unwarily at least if not improperly, sells his counterfeit shillings to Jew boys at threepence each, little suspects that it is for the purpose of being returned upon him again at the rate of twelvepence; or 300 per cent. profit to the purchasers and utterers.

But these are not the only criminal devices to which the coiners and dealers, as well as the ut terers of base money, have had recourse, for an swering their iniquitous purposes.

Previous to the act of the 37th Geo. 3, cap. 126, counterfeit French crowns, half-crowns, and shil lings, of excellent workmanship, were introduced with a view to elude the punishment of the then deficient laws relative to foreign coin.

Fraudulent die sinkers are to be found both in the metropolis and in Birmingham, who are excellent artists; able and willing to copy the exact similitude of any coin, from the British guinea to

the

the sequin of Turkey, or to the star pagoda of Arcot. The delinquents have therefore every opportunity and assistance they can wish for ; while their accurate knowledge of the deficiency of the laws, (particularly relative to British coin) and where the point of danger lies, joined to the extreme difficulty of detection, operates as a great encouragement to this species of treason, felony, and fraud; and affords the most forcible reason why these pests of society still continue to afflict the honest part of the community.

An opinion prevails, founded on information obtained through the medium of the most intelligent of these coiners and dealers, that of the counterfeit money now in circulation, not above one third part is of the species of flats or composition money, which has been mentioned as the most intrinsically valuable of counterfeit silver; and con. tains from one-fourth to one third silver: the remainder being blanched copper.-The other two thirds of the counterfeit money being cast or washed, and intrinsically worth little or nothing, the imposition upon the public is obvious. Taking the whole upon an average, the amount of the injury may be fairly calculated at within 10 per cent. of a total loss upon the mass of the base silver now in circulation; which, if a conclusion may be drawn from what passes under the review of any person who has occasion to receive silver in exchange, must considerably exceed one million sterling! To this we have the miserable prospect of an accession every year, until some effectual steps shall be taken to remedy the evil.

Of the copper coinage, the quantity of counterfeits at one time in circulation might be truly said to equal three-fourth parts of the whole, and nothing

is more certain than that a very great proportion of the actual counterfeits passed as mint halfpence, from their size and appearance, although they. yielded the coiners a vast profit.

Even at present the state both of the silver and copper coinage of this kingdom (the copper pence only excepted) deserves very particular attention, for at no time can any person minutely examine either the one coin or the other, which may come into his possession, without finding a considerable portion counterfeit. Colquhoun.

These dealers are also assisted by fruit-women, who are always ready to give change to ladies (particularly when no gentleman is in company,) when perhaps not one shilling in the change is good; and should the purchaser of the fruit object to any, abusive words ensue.-An instance of this happened not long ago in Cranbourn Alley. Rabbit and fowl hawkers are likewise very dextrous in passing bad money they call in at shops, and propose bargains of fowls, apparently fine looking, but generally old; when they receive payment, they have a mode of changing the silver, and telling the purchaser that he has given a bad shilling, or half a crown, producing accordingly a most notorious base one: by their peremptory, and afterwards abusive manner, they force the master or mistress of the house (for who would have a mob about their door?) to give them good money for their counterfeit. A person of this description has imposed lately upon some very respectable people in Chelsea, but was fortunately stopped in his career. Editor.

A species of counterfeit halfpence made wholly of lead, has been circulated in considerable quantities, coloured in such a manner as even to deceive the best judges. They are generally of the reign of George

George II. and have the exact appearance of old mint halfpence. Colquhoun.

The same kind of counterfeit penny-pieces are also in circulation; and as six or twelve pennypieces are often taken in a lump, the leaden ones, on account of their exact size and similitude, are seldom or ever noticed. The colouring, however, is very apt to wear off at the edges.

Among our most notorious coiners was THOMAS DENTON, a native of the northern part of Yorkshire; though bred a tinman, from a taste for letters, he kept a bookseller's shop in the city of York. He soon after removed to London, where seeing a speaking figure, made by some foreigners, he completed another in a very short time, and by that means accumulated much money, by exhibiting it in various parts of England. The speaking figure he afterwards sold to a painter in the city, and made a writing figure, which on his execution was left in the hands of a friend. His abilities in the chemical line were very conspicuous, and he afterwards translated Pinetti's book of deceptions, with notes. From his knowledge of chemistry he obtained the art of plating coach harness, &c. which he carried on jointly with the business of a bookseller, in Holborn, for some time. In this business he unhappily formed a connection with a person notorious for making plain shillings. Those powers which assisted him to make several mathematical instruments, as pentegraphs, &c. enabled him to imitate the current coin in a manner that deceived the best judges, and held the court nine hours upon his trial; after which he was acquitted, but convicted upon a different count. He suffered July 1, 1789, and died a professed infidel; he was continually laughing and nodding to some of the specta

tors,