Jan. 1, 1818, forbidding further issue from that date, or the circulation of them after the end of the year, except in the case of the Overseers of Birmingham, who were granted grace till Lady-day, 1820, to call in what they had issued. In 1786 Boulton struck over 100 tons of copper for the East India Co., and, adding to his presses yearly, soon had plenty of orders, including copper for the American Colonies, silver for Sierra Leone, and a beautiful set for the French Republic. To enumerate all the various coins, medals, and tokens issued from Soho would take too much space, but we may. say that he brought the art of coining to a perfection very little surpassed even in the present day. In 1789 he made for the Privy Council a model penny, halfpenny, and farthing, but red-tapeism delayed the order until 1797, when he began coining for the Government twopennies (only for one year), pennies, halfpennies and farthings, continuing to do so until 1806, by which time he had sent out not less than 4,200 tons weight. In this coinage of 1797 the penny was made of the exact weight of 1 oz., the other coins being in proportion. In 1799, eighteen pennies were struck out of the pound of metal, but the people thought they were counterfeit, and would not take them until a proclamation ordering their circulation, was issued December 9th. They became used to a deprecation of currency after that, and there was but very little grumbling in 1805, when Boulton was ordered to divide the pound of copper into 24 pennies. The machinery of Boulton's mint, with the collection of dies, pattern coins, tokens, and medals, were sold by auction in 1850. The collection should have numbered 119 different pieces, but there was not a complete set for sale. The mint, however, could not be called extinct, as Messrs. Watt and Co. (successors to Bolton and Watt), who had removed to Smethwick in 1848, struck over 3,000 tons of copper and bronze coin between 1860 and 1866, mostly tor Foreign countries. The first English copper penny (1797) was struck in Birmingham, and so was the last. Messrs. Ralph Heaton and Son (the mint, Warstone Lane) receiving the contract in April, 1853, for 500 tons of copper coin, comprising pence, half-pence, farthings, half-farthings, and quarter-farthings. The present bronze coinage came into use December 1st, 1860, and Messrs. Heaton have had several contracts therefor since then. This firm has acquired a reputation quite equal to the Soho Mint, and have supplied the coins—silver, copper, and bronze—for Belgium, Canada, China, Chili, Denmark, Germany, Hayti, India, Republic of Columbia, Sarawak, Sweden, Tunis, Turkey, Tuscany, Venezuela, and other Principalities and States, including hundreds of tons of silver blanks for our own Government and others, sending workmen and machinery to the countries where it was preferred to have the coins struck at home. Boulton, in his day, supplied the presses and machinery for the Mint on Tower Hill (and they are still in use), as well as for the Danish, Spanish, and Russian authorities, Mexico, Calcutta, Bombay, &c. Messrs. Heaton, and the modern Soho firm, also dealing in such articles. Foremost among modern local medallists, is Mr. Joseph Moore, of Pitsford Street, whose cabinet of specimens is most extensive. An effort is being made to gather for the new Museum and Art Gallery a collection of all coins, medals, and tokens struck in Birmingham, and if it can be perfected it will necessarily be a very valuable one.
Coal.—Over half-a-million tons of coal are used in Birmingham annually.
Cocoa.—The manufacture of cocoa cannot be classed among the staple , trades of the town, but one of the largest establishments of the kind in the kingdom, if not in the world, is that of Messrs. Cadbury, at Bournville, where nearly 400 persons are employed,
