Footnotes

• Thomas Violet was a goldsmith who flourished c.1634-62. He was imprisoned for exporting gold and silver, 1634; imprisoned as a royalist, 1642 and 1644-8; informer against exporters of silver, 1652-3; and published pamphlets against importation of illegal coins. He is mentioned by Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting:
  
  "Carried on the business of goldsmith in London. The practice, so ruinous to the coinage, of culling out the more weighty coins for the purpose of reducing them to bullion was about this time (1627) carried on to an alarming extent, so as not only to produce a scarcity of money, but also to render that to which remained too feeble, and to raise the price of silver above that allowed by the mints.
  
  To check these abuses, the king issued a proclamation in this year that all persons were forbidden to exchange or buy any bullion in any part of His Majesty's dominions, or should give or receive for the exchanging of any current coins, more than the said coins should be current for, and that no coin should be exported, and no goldsmith melt any current coins, or give more than the price allowed at the mint, under heavy penalties.
  
  In 1637, Violet was instrumental, with others, in melting down the heaviest coins of the King into bullion, and giving a higher price than was allowed by the mints for gold and silver and exporting the same, for which complicity, he was informed against in the Star Chamber, and imprisoned for above 20 weeks for refusing to answer interrogations, but was pardoned on condition of discovering his accomplices and paying a fine of £2,000 in gold."

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Category: Coins / Coins and Banknotes

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