| Description | The Day Books form an unbroken series, but there is a puzzling variety in their original titles, which are as follows:
"Coinage Day Book," 1791-1795.
"Mint Day Book," 1795-1798.
"Mint Day Book," 1798-1799.
"Mint Day Book," 1799-1801.
"Mint Day Book," 1801-1805.
"Mint and Coinage Day Book," 1805-1808.
"Mint and Coinage Journal," 1808-1811.
"Mint Day Book," 1808-1813.
"Day Book or Rough Coinage Journal," 1814-1819.
"Mint and Coinage Day Book," 1820-1834.
"Mint and Coinage Day Book," 1834-1849.
The earliest volume in the series is also referred to elsewhere as a Waste Book. These books contain a day-to-day record of the transactions of the business, i.e. receipts of money or copper, and expenditure. Weekly totals of wages paid were posted from the wages book (or time book; see e.g. Day Book, 1791-5, p. 1); records of petty expenses were posted each month from the petty cash book; and records of invoices sent were posted from the invoice books. Entries were posted hence to the Journal and (from 26 Jul. 1797) to the sales book ledger. The regular entries in the Day Book, 1808-1811, are continued to 30 Sep. 1808, at which point a new day book (1808-1813) was begun. (The journal was begun anew at the same date, and probably the ledger was too.) However, the earlier day book contains a further series of entries for the period from 1 Oct. 1808 to 1 Jan. 1811, some of which were posted from the new book. The precise nature of these entries is unclear, but they are probably connected with the transfer of the business from Matthew Boulton to his son (see above, and note that the later volume is styled in the cross-references "MRB D Bk"). The entries in the Day Book, 1820-1834, for 31 Mar.-30 Sep. 1834 were copied into the succeeding volume (p. 269). |