and to give gold and silver for it; Lastly, The patentee was to pay only 16l. 13s. 4d. per ann. to the crown.  Then, as to the execution of that patent.  First, I find the halfpence were milled, which, as it is of great use to prevent counterfeits (and therefore industriously avoided by Wood) so it was an addition to the charge of coinage.  And for the weight and goodness of the metal; I have several halfpence now by me, many of which weigh a ninth part more than those coined by Wood, and bear the fire and hammer a great deal better; and which is no trifle, the impression fairer and deeper.  I grant indeed, that many of the latter coinage yield in weight to some of Wood’s, by a fraud natural to such patentees; but not so immediately after the grant, and before the coin grew current:  For in this circumstance Mr. Wood must serve for a precedent in future times.

[Footnote 14:  The portion here in square brackets was printed in the fourth edition of this Letter and in the work entitled, “Fraud Detected.”  It is not given in Faulkner’s first collected edition issued in 1735, nor in “The Hibernian Patriot,” issued in 1730. [T.S.]]

Let us now examine this new patent granted to William Wood.  It passed upon very false suggestions of his own, and of a few confederates:  It passed in England, without the least reference hither.  It passed unknown to the very Lord Lieutenant, then in England.  Wood is empowered to coin one hundred and eight thousand pounds, “and all the officers in the kingdom (civil and military) are commanded” in the Report to countenance and assist him.  Knox had only power to utter what we would take, and was obliged “to receive his coin back again at our demand,” and to “enter into security for so doing.”  Wood’s halfpence are not milled, and therefore more easily counterfeited by himself as well as by others:  Wood pays a thousand pounds per ann. for 14 years, Knox paid only 16l. 13s. 4d. per ann. for 21 years.

It was the Report that set me the example of making a comparison between those two patents, wherein the committee was grossly misled by the false representation of William Wood, as it was by another assertion, that seven hundred ton of copper were coined during the 21 years of Lord Dartmouth’s and Knox’s patents.  Such a quantity of copper at the rate of 2s. 8d. per pound would amount to about an hundred and ninety thousand pounds, which was very near as much as the current cash of the kingdom in those days; yet, during that period, Ireland was never known to have too much copper coin, and for several years there was no coining at all:  Besides I am assured, that upon enquiring into the custom-house books, all the copper imported into the kingdom, from 1683 to 1692, which includes 8 years of the 21 (besides one year allowed for the troubles) did not exceed 47 tons, and we cannot suppose even that small quantity to have been wholly applied to coinage:  So that I believe there was never any comparison more unluckily made or so destructive of the design for which it was produced.