Provenance note 

The documents in this series were previously located at ML A80-2. They were purchased in 1884 from Lord Brabourne by Sir Saul Samuel, the Agent-General for New South Wales, and transferred to the Mitchell Library in 1910. They were part of the accession which became known as the Brabourne collection. 

Background note 

Sir Joseph Banks was sworn to His Majesty's Privy Council on 29 March 1797 and appointed to the Coin Committee to examine the means of procuring a supply of copper coinage. 

His other activities on the Coin Committee included the production of quantities of new copper coin in the Birmingham factory of Matthew Boulton in 1797; inducing Boulton to move his machinery to the Royal Mint in 1804; establishing the new Royal Mint on Tower Hill in London in 1810; and considering recoining the currency, and the efficacy of converting to decimal currency.