In the three years 1713-15, Mint income lagged seriously behind expenditure. Coinage has increased since peace, and if the increase continues the deficit will rise to 5,000 or 6,000 p.a. The deficit has hitherto been financed from surpluses amassed during the war when little money was coined, but the remaining surplus is now under 1,000. In renewing the Coinage Act, which is about to expire, the Commons should be encouraged to increase coinage duty by 50 (from 10s. to 15s. a ton on wine and from 20s. to 30s. a ton on brandy).||Signed by [warden] Richard Sandford.||Variant draft of PRO, Mint 1/7, p. 71 (of the same date, unsigned and printed in NC, 6: 276-7).