CO129-302 - Public Offices - 1900 — Page 296

$

C

in the manufacture.

0.0.

41755

REG-21 DECO89

Of the whole 600 bags which were re-examined

sixteen only have been found to contain coins not within

Under these circum-

the logal remedy as to fineness, stances, and having regard to all the facts of the case, the Master of the Mint came to the conclusion that the bulk of the coinage might fairly be permitted to go forward, and that only those bags in which defective pieces had

In accordance with this de- been found nood be dutained. cision the sixteen bags containing 80,000 pieces were not allowed to be packed for exportation and their contents were re-melted under the supervision of the Superintendent of the Operative Department of the Royal Mint.

The Master of the Mint desires me to add that it would not have been possible under a system of constant supervision, such as prevails in this Department, for this large accumulation of coin to have been manufactured with-

out assay,

and that therefore any widespread error, such as was found to exist in the present case, could not have

taken place.

It was on this account that he determined

Art.

to have every bag separately examined so as to form a judg- ment founded on a wider basis of experiment as to the ex- tent to which the inaccurate treatment of the alloy had

pervaded the whole coinage.

I beg to rofor to the correspondence which took place between the Crown Agents and this Department in October 1897 in which I dwelt on the necessity of securing adequate supervision of coinages undertaken by a private firm for a Dependency of the Crown.

The present case il-

lustrates the impossibility of securing accurate work by

merely occasional supervision.

I am, &c. &c.

(Sa) Horace Seymour.