| Description | (3 ff.) [The restrictions against defacing the coin of the realm apply, I understand, equally to the penny pieces, but they will be rendered ineffectual by the present high price of copper, as I believe that the penny pieces are now commonly used in the manufactories of Birmingham and elsewhere as a substitute for shruff copper, and in all operations requiring small pieces of copper. This effect of the advance is inevitable, and appears to have been anticipated in the report of the Committee of Coin on copper coinage. I am uninformed of the reasons which have induced Government to abandon the idea of assimilating the Irish and English currency. The alteration has rendered it necessary to make new dies for that part of the coinage intended for Ireland.] |