Letter from A
According to your orders, I herewith deliver in, a
statement of the mint from the time that office has been under my direction, an
account of the mint charges with the duty and custom received on coinage,
likewise an account of what treasure has been coined on account of the
Honorable Company, by which they will see at one view the whole advantages that
have accrued to them by their mint at Fort William, over and above the coinage
of their own treasure, for which no charge has been made. In answer to the 35th
paragraph of the General Letter, I must beg leave to assure you that the mint
has ever commanded my strictest attention, but (as the Honble Company have been
before advised) for want of proper materials and utensils, assays cannot be
made with the greatest accuracy, but the strictest care has been ever had to
keep the Calcutta rupee up to the same weight and fineness as what are coined
in the mints at Moorsheedabad and Mongheer.
The small deficiency in the weight of the Arcot rupee
may have been occasioned by the air affecting the balance at the particular
time of weighing those rupees sent home, but cannot be general, as, from the
manner of delivering money from the mint, which is by weighing one hundred
rupees at a time in the most exact scales that can be made in this country, if
every rupee was deficient even so small a fraction, it would be evident &
be too considerable not to be complained of. I cannot help observing the great
difference of the assay of the rupees sent by the Hawke, as the