Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/64

 50 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

��MASSACHUSETTS COINAGE AND COINS.

��BY JOHN B. HILL.

��THE PINE TREE MONEY.

SAMPLES of the coined money of the Province, or rather the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, are very rarely seen among us, perhaps I may say never at this day, except in the cabinets of our collectors. Few of the readers of the Granite Monthly have seen a specimen of this coinage, undoubtedly the first established by law in the United States, but I have thought that many of them would read with interest a copy of the order of the court by which it was directed to be coined and issued, which I have copied as follows : —

" 1652, May 27. It is ordered by the court and the authoritie thereof, that the printed order about money shall be in force untill the .first of the seventh month next and no longer, and that from and after the first of September next, the money hereafter appoynted and expressed shall be the current money of the commonwealth, and no other unless English, except the receiver consent thereunto. In persuance of the intent of this court herein, be it further ordered and enacted by the authorities of this court, that all persons whatso- ever have liberty to bring in unto the mint house at Boston all bullion plate or Spanish coyne, there to be melted and brought to the alloy of sterling silver, by John Hull, master of said mint and his sworne officers ; and by him to be coyned into twelve pence, six pence, and three pence pieces, which shall be for form, flat and square on the sides, and stamped on the one side with N. E., and on the other side with Xlld, VId, and Illd, according to the value of each piece, together with a private mark, which shall be appoynted every three months by the governor, and known only to him and the sworne officers of the mint; and further the sd master of the mint afforsaid is hereby required to coyne all the sd money of good silver of the first alloy of new sterling English money, and for value to stamp two pence to a shilling of lesser value than the present English coyne, and the lesser peeces proportionable, and all such coyne as aforesaid shall be acknowledged to be the current coyne of this commonwealth, and pass from man to man in all payment accordingly, within this jurisdiction only. And the mint master for himself and officers for there payens and labours in melting, refining and coyning, is allowed by this court to take one shilling out of every twenty shillings which he shall stamp as afore- said. And it shall be in the liberty of any person who brings into the mint house any bullion, plate, or Spanish coyne as aforesaid, to be present and se the same melted, refined, and alloyed, and then to take a receit of the master of the mint for the weyghts of that which is good silver alloyed as aforesaid, for which the mint master shall deliver him the like weyght of coyned money, viz every shilling to weyghe three penny troy weight, and lesser peeces proportion- ably, deducting allowance for coyning as before exprest.

And that this order being of so great concernment may not in any particu- lar thereof fall to the ground, it is further ordered that Mr. Richard Bellingham, Mr. Wm. Hibbings, the p'sent Secretary, Capt. John Leverett, and Mr. Thomas Clarke, be a com'ittee appoynted by this court to appoynt the mint house in some convenient place in Boston, and to give John Hull, master of the mint, the oath suitable to his place, and to approve of all other officers, and deter- mine what else shall appear to them as necessary to be done for the carrying

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