r for fine silver, and the wages and
other accessories were continually rising in price. If he paid the tax,
from one to two thousand marks, weekly to the lord of the mint, he
concealed from him the fifty marks which he had struck over and above,
and retained the tax upon them for himself; furthermore, he was a sharp
coiner, that is to say, he deducted from the money about half a grain
in the amount of silver required by the law; he always struck a hundred
marks in weight, two ounces too light, which was remarked by no one,
and when he knew that the money was to be sent directly into foreign
countries, especially to Poland, he was bolder in deducting from the
weight. His dealings with the purveyors who procured the metal for him,
were not more upright. There was carried on then, throughout the whole
of Germany, a secret traffic, which was severely prohibited by the law,
and traced with much sagacity by the gate-keepers of the cities, a
traffic in false money. What was acquired by the soldier as booty, or
stolen by the thief from the church, was smelted by the receivers of
stolen goods into flat cakes or conical masses, which in the language
of the trade were called "ingots" and "kings;" whatever was clipped
from the money in diminishing the proper quantity of silver, or had
otherwise to be carefully consigned under a false name, was poured out
of the smelting crucible over moist birchen-twigs, and thus granulated:
but besides this, by being incessantly bought up, the good coin was
exchanged for bad, the small money-changers, most of them wandering
Jews, journeyed from village to village far across the frontiers of the
German Empire, and collected, as the ragmen do now, their wares from
the soldiers, countrymen, and beggars. All the medals of distinguished
persons, all coats-of-arms and inscriptions, horse and man, wolves,
sheep and bears, thalers and hellers, the saints of Cologne and Treves,
and the medallions of the heretic Luther, were bought up for the mint,
collected and exchanged. The concealed wares were then packed into a
vessel with ginger, pepper, and tartar, and paid toll duty as white
lead, wrapped up in bales of cloth and frankincense. There were
travelling waggons with false bottoms, which were specially prepared
for such transports. A still better safeguard was an ecclesiastic as a
travelling companion; but the best of all was a trumpeter, who gave the
trader the appearance of being a prince's courier. If i