To the most HonbleHonourable the Earl of Oxford & Earl Mortimer Lord High Treasurer of great Britain.

May it please yoryour LordpLordship

I humbly beg leave to lay before yoryour LordpLordship that the Master & Worker of her MajtsMajestys Mint is not obliged to receive all the gold & silver brought into her MajtsMajestys Mint to be coyned. If any gold be brought into her Majts Mint in wchwhich is not tough, he returns it back to be toughned at the Importers charge tho it be standard. If any gold or silver be not eavenly mixed he returns it back to be remelted at the Importers charge. If it be not neare to standard he returns it back to be refined at the Importers charge. And to judge whether it be fit to be received or returned back is left to his discretion. And by parity of reason he should not be obliged to receive all sorts of copper to be coyned. If it be not fine or not tough & malleable or ill coloured or otherwise faulty, he should be at liberty to return it back to yethe owner to be made fit for the ownerMint at the Importers charge. Otherwise it will be difficult to coyn the money of good malleable copper., without allowing for the charge loss & hazzards of such any undertaking.

There is an assay of copper by refining a small parcel & thence recconing what will be the wast & charges & trouble in refining a Tunn of such copper., & setting a value upon it accordingly. And such an Assay is usefull in buying coarse copper to be refined, but is of little or no use in buying fine copper. The price of fine copper depends upon the malleability & two parcels of copper wchwhich by such an assay are equally fine may differ very much in their price malleability, & by consequence in their price. Copper refined to that degree & in that manner as to be malleable when red hot without cracking when red hot is the fittest material for manufacturing into all sorts of copper vessels & by consequence for money. The Swedish copper of money is of this standard. ABut if it be made much more malleable the wire drawers will give two or And such copper is usually valued at about 11$\frac{1}{2}$d per lwtpound weight. And if it be made still more soft & malleable the wiredrawer may value it at 2 or 3s per lwtpound weight because of its fitness for his use. Tis the ductility that makes it usefull & the usefulness that sets a price upon it & the triall by the hammer hot & cold hammering & bending hot & cold that determins the ductility. This is the triallassay by wchwhich the Refiners of copper know when their copper is fully fine & ready to vitrify & by consequence the proper assay for receiving fine copper into the Mintto be melted into barrs. For it determins the fineness & the malleability at once, no coarse copper being malleable.