MINT, the place where money is coined, from the AnglolSaxon mynet (money or coin), and that in all probability adopted from the Latin moneta.
Of the manner in which the Britons conducted the coinage of their rude substitutes for money, few or no notices can now be recovered. The passage from Ciesar, on which the supposition- had been founded that the value of the pieces of metal were determined only by weight, has been proved by Mr. Hawkins (` Remarks on the Ancient British Coins,' in Menumenta Historica Britannica,' p. cii.) to have been altered in the 17th century. In all the principal manuscripts of the Com mentaries,' the passage supports the conclusion that the Britons had brass and silver coins. Of the earlier coinage of the country a notice will be found under NUMISMATICS.
If the Romans actually coined money in Britain, of which, we pre sume, there can be no doubt, their mints were probably superintended by the same officers as were employed in other parts of their dominions ; but no documents have yet been produced in proof of it ; nor is any thing known respecting the mints of the British kings after tho de parture of the Romans.
On the early coins are found, in addition to the names of the kings, those of other persons also upon the same piece, who are with great probability have been the moneyers; because on later Anglo-Saxon money the names of those officers frequently occur, with the addition of their title of office. From the circumstance of their names being inscribed on the coins, if is reasonable to conclude that they were responsible for the integrity of the money ; and like wise that they were the principal officers of the mint. The silence also of the Anglo-Saxon laws and of Domesday Book as to other officers of the mint, whilst they so frequently mention the moncyers, strongly corroborates the opinion that they were the only persons employed in the Anglo-Saxon and early Anglo-Norman mints, except perhaps occa sional labourers ; but an officer called the reeve seems to have had some connection with the mint, or some jurisdiction over it. In the reign of Henry I. the money was so much debased as to call for exemplary punishment on the offenders, which is said to have been inflicted on moneyers only, without the least notice a any other officer. (` Sax. Chron.,' sub An. 1125.) This was also the case upon
a similar occasion in the reign of Henry II. (` Chron. Joh. abb. S. Petri de Burge,' Sparke, p. 78.) After the Norman conquest the officers of the mint appear to have been, in some degree, under the authority of the court of Exchequer, as they were admitted to their respective offices in that court, and took the usual oath of office before the treasurer and barons.
Ruding observes that if the gerefa, or reeve, above mentioned was not the presiding officer of the Anglo-Saxon mints, ho is unable to ascertain at what period it became necessary to place some permanent superintending authority in the mint to prevent any ill-practices of the moneyers; but he thinks it probable that such an officer was appointed between the 26 Henry II., when the moneyers alone were punished for the adulteration of the money, and the third year of Richard I., when Henry de Cornhill accounted for the profits of the cambium of all England, except Winchester. (Made; Hist. Exch.,' vol. ii.) In the Anglo-Saxon and the early Norman periods there were many mints beside the king's, and some were continued to a much later time. Barons and bishops struck money, especially in King Stephen's reign, and in two or three instances the privilege of coining was granted to greater monasteries. Welsey's exercise of this franchise, both as bishop of Durham and archbishop of •York, is well known : and there are coins of the archbishops of Canterbury, distinctly marked as such, at intervals from Jaenberht, consecrated in 793, to the close of the reign of Henry VIII. Of the lay barons of Stephen's time, we have but one coin now extant, usually ascribed to Robert earl of Gloucester. Pegge's Dismertation on the Coins of the archbishops of Canterbury,' Noble's on those of the bishops of Durham, and more particularly Ruling's enumeration of the places where Mints and Ex changes have been fixed In Britain and its dependencies, will supply the reader with the amplest information upon this subject.