Did these bags of silver coin come up to the full weight, then the silver currency in Holland would be good as to those pieces; but as the greatest part of them are old, having been struck with the hammer, and are of unequal weight, having been coined (_al marco_) in the old fashion, when coin was weighed by the marc, and not as at present piece by piece, it is impossible they should be of legal weight: the bank, therefore, allows 2 ounces of remedy in receiving those sacs, that is, they put 2 ounces into the scale with the sac, and if they find that the sac is still light, but that the deficiency does not exceed one ounce more than the remedy, they throw out the coin and reckon it over; and if the tale be just, and that none of the pieces appear to have been clipped, they receive it as if it were of due weight: if it prove above 3 ounces short of the just weight, they do not receive it. [Sidenote: All allowances for light weight are an abuse.] Here is a palpable abuse, from a disorder in the coin. If a sac is ever so little too light, why allow it to pass, as if it were of due weight? Nothing is so easy as to order such deficiency to be made good by the deliverer. Weights are made for exactness, and all remedies are aukward and incorrect. This allowance must open a door to malversations in a country like Holland, where there is almost no milled silver coin. The old hammered money was not weighed at the mint, as has been said, piece by piece: it was sufficient that every marc of it answered to the legal denomination: under such a regulation, it is very plain, that there must be many pieces above the legal weight, as well as many pieces below it. Is it to be supposed that money-jobbers will not profit of that inequality, by reducing the heavy pieces to their standard weight, when by such an action they cannot be convicted of any crime? This is one abuse. By reducing the heavy pieces to their legal weight, the currency is degraded; because that which is taken from these ought to be left to compensate what the light pieces fall short. The bank, therefore, by giving the remedy, gives a kind of sanction to this malversation. [Sidenote: Frauds of money-jobbers in Holland.] Farther, if a money-jobber gets some sacs above the current weight, is it to be doubted but he will reduce them as near as he can to the lowest weight received at the bank? And if he should mistake, and reduce them too low, he has still an expedient for cheating the public, which shall be mentioned presently. [Sidenote: The best silver coin in Holland is, upon an average, 1 per cent. too light.]