Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/693

Rh cédula of February 1675 to issue gold coins similar in all respects to those coined in Spain. Accordingly in 1676 by order of the viceroy the standard was declared to be twenty-two carats, and the mark of pure gold ordered to be coined into sixty-eight escudos after the deduction of two and a half tomines for brassage. On the 23d of May this privilege was publicly proclaimed, and received with much rejoicing. Bands of music played in different parts of the city, and all the officers of state issued from the mint on horseback, and marched in procession under arches of flowers which spanned the crowded streets. There is no mention, however, of any gold having been coined before the 23d of December 1679, on which day the viceroy and audiencia visited the mint to witness the coinage of doubloons.

The original building in which the operations of the mint were conducted was soon found to be inadequate to requirements, and to the safe keeping of the large sums that were accumulated in it. Indeed the king had issued orders for a mint to be erected at his own expense; but these instructions were not carried out until, owing to the representations of the treasurer, Gabriel Diaz, he again in January 1569 ordered the erection of a proper building on a site selected and assigned for that purpose. With the progressive increase in coinage this building became too small, and in 1731 Viceroy Casafuerte began the erection of the one which, enlarged and embellished, has developed into the fine mint which exists to-day in the city of Mexico.

During this same year the king by cédula of the 26th of January ordered the establishment of a