By §8 it is enacted, That if any person shall have in his custody or possession three or more pieces of false or counter feit coin resembling, or apparently in tended to resemble or pass for, any of the king's current gold or silver coin, know ing the same to be false or counterfeit, and with intent to utter or put off the same, he shall be liable to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three years ; and if any person so convicted shall after wards commit the like misdemeanor, or crime and offence, he shall be liable to be transported for life, or for any term not less than seven years, or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding four years. The above provisions relate to the pro tection of the gold and silver coin : by 12 of the same statute similar provisions were made with respect to copper coin ; but the penalties are transportation for seven years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years.
Section 10 of the act contains a provi sion against making, mending, or having in possession any coining tools. The penalties are transportation beyond the seas for life, or for any term not less than seven years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding four years.
The form of this act of parliament is a good example of the adherence to esta blished principles. The object of the act is to protect the public interest, and to prevent people from being defrauded by the makers and issuers of base coin ; and it is for the public interest that such fraud as coining should be punished with any amount of severity that is necessary to attain the object. But the offence is
treated, even in the last act, as if it con sisted in counterfeiting the king's coin, and not in injuring the public ; and thus the legal offence is made to consist in the imitating of that coin which the king alone, by his prerogative, can make and issue ; for it is an offence against the king's prerogative, whether the coin is of base metal or as good as the king's coin. The form of the act, however, accom plishes the object, just as well as if it based on the principle of the mis chief of coining; and the preservation of forms is certainly of some importance in governments of all kinds. The punishment for making coin to imitate the king's coin, even if the metal be as good as the king's, is necessary ; for there would be no secu rity for good money if anybody might make it. But some changes have been made by the act of William IV., which have brought the law nearer to its true object. Those offences against the coin which were formerly high treason are now felony ; and the punishment of transportation has been substituted for the former punishment of death, a cir cumstance which tends to render the execution of the law more steady and cf. ficient. [MINT.]