function of rnoney.

The use of metals in this rude state was attended with two very considerable
inconveniences ; first, with the trouble of weighing, and secondly, with
that of assaying them. In the precious metals, where a small difference in
the quantity makes a great difference in the value, even the business of
weighing, with proper exactness, requires at least very accurate weights and
scales. The weighing of gold, in particular, is an operation of some nicety
In the coarser metals, indeed, where a small error would be of little
consequence, less accuracy would, no doubt, be necessary. Yet we should find
it excessively troublesome if every time a poor man had occasion either to
buy or sell a farthing's worth of goods, he was obliged to weigh the
farthing. The operation of assaying is still more difficult, still more
tedious ; and, unless a part of the metal is fairly melted in the crucible,
with proper dissolvents, any conclusion that can be drawn from it is
extremely uncertain. Before the institution of coined money, however, unless
they went through this tedious and difficult operation, people must always
have been liable to the grossest frauds and impositions; and instead of a
pound weight of pure silver, or pure copper, might receive, in exchange for
their goods, an adulterated composition of the coarsest and cheapest
materials, which had, however, in their outward appearance, been made to
resemble those metals. To prevent such abuses, to facilitate exchanges, and
thereby to encourage all sorts of industry and commerce, it has been found
necessary, in all countries that have made any considerable advances towards
improvement, to affix a public stamp upon certain quantities of such
particular metals, as were in those countries commonly made use of to
purchase goods. Hence the origin of coined money, and of those public
offices called mints; institutions exactly of the same nature with those of
the aulnagers and stamp-masters of woollen and linen cloth. All of them are
equally meant to ascertain, by means of a public stamp, the quantity and