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the Roman legian, cOl1lprehending abollt fix hll11dred
meno There IVere ten cuhorts in a legion, the firll of
which excecded
.11
Ihe rell, both in dignity and numo
ber of meno
When the army IVas ranged in o,der of
hanle, the firll cohon took up the right of the fir(l
line the rel! foJlowed in their natural order, fo that
the' third was in the centre of the firllline of the
legion, and the f¡fth on Ihe left, the fecond bellVeen
the firll and third, and the foucth .belween the third
and fifth: the five remaining cohons formed a fecond
line, in their natural order.
C01f, the badge of a ferjeant at laIV, who is called
ferjeant of the coif, from the lawn·cuif they wear un·
der lheir caps IVhen they are created ferjeants.
The ufe of the coif was to cover the clerical ton·
fure. See TONSURE.
COlL. See
~O 'L.
COlLON i", lhe ancient Greciantheatres, the fame with
t·he cavea of the Romans. See CAV
EA.
COILOPHYLLUM, in botany. See SARRACENA.
COIMHRA, a large city of Portugal, in the province
of Beira, ntuated on the river Mondego, abollt nine·
r..x miles north of Li(bon: W. long.
9',
and
N. hu.
40° 20'.
COlN denotes all manner of the fe veral Ilamps and fpe.
cies of nloney in any nation.
See M
oN
EY.
COIN, in architeélure, a kind of dye cut d!agonal'lVife,
afler tbe manner of a flight of a (Iair cafe, fe,ving at
bouom to fupport columns in a level, and at tOP to
corre/l the inclination of
an
enlablature [upponing a
vauh.
CO'N is alfo ufed for a folid angle ccmpofed of tIVO fur
faces inclined towards eaeh other, IVhether that angle
be exterior, as the coin of a IVall, a tree,
te.
or in·
terior, as ,he coi
o
of a chamber or chimney. See
QU0'N.
COIÑAGE, or CO'N'NG, theart ofmakingmoney, as
perfonned either by the hammer or milI.
Fo,merly the fab,ic of coins was dill'crent from
what it is at prefent. They cut a large plate of me·
tal into feveral litrle fquares, the corners of which
were cut
oH
with lheers. After having lhaped thefe
pieces, [o as to reAder them perfealy conformable, in
point of weight,
10
the Ilandaro piece, they took each
pitce in hanu again, to make it exa/lly round, by a
gentle hammering. This was called a planchet, and
was fit for immediate coining. Then engravers pre
pared, as they IIdl do, a couple of Ileel mall'es in form
of dyes, cut and terminmd by a Hat furface, rounded
011' at the edges. They engraved or flamped on it the
hollolV of a head, a cro(" a fcutcheon, or any olher
figure, aceording to the cuflom of the times, with a
nlOrt legend. As one of thefe dyes IV", to remain doro
m~nt,
and the other ruoveable, the former ended in a
fquare prirm, that it might be introduced into the
fquare holeor the block, IVhich, being fixed very fall,
kept tRe dye as f1eady as any vice could
h~\'e
done.
The planchet of metal \las horizontally laid upon this
inferior mars, to receive the Ilamp of it on one fide,
and that of the upper dye, wherewith it IVas covered,
on the olher. This moveable dye, having its round
e o
engravcd furface relling upon the planchet, had at its
oppofite extremity a Hat fquare, and larger furface
upon which they gave [everal heavy blows, with a
~am:
mer of anenor01OUS fize, till the double flamp IVas fuf.
ficientl y, in relievo, imprell'ed on eachfide of lhe plan.
chet. This being finilhed, was immediately fucceeded
by another, and they thus became
a
flandard eoin,
which had the degree of finenefs, the weight and
mark, determined by the judgment of the infpeaors
to make jt good current money. The (Irong temper:
ing which IVas and is lIill givcn to the two dyes, reno
dered them capable of bea,ing thofe repeated blows.
Coining has been confiderably improved and rendered
,ex peditious, by feveral ingenious machines, and by
a
wife application of the furell phyfical experiments to
the methods of fining, dying, and f1amping the dill'er.
enl
met~ls.
The lhree 6nell in(lruments the mint·man ufes, are
the laminating engine, the machine for making the im.
premons on theedges of coins, and the milI.
After they have taken the lamina!, or plattS of me.
tal, out of the mould into which they are call, they
do not beat them on the anvil, as was formerly done,
but they make them pars and repafs between the fe.
vmJ
rollers of the laminating engine, IVhich being grao
dually brought c10rer and c10fer
10
each olher, pre·
fently give .the lamina its uniform and exa/l thickne[s.
lnllead of dividing the lamina into fmall fquares, they
at once CUt clcan out of it as many planchets as it can
contain, by means of a lharp {teel trfpan, of« round·
ilh 6gure, hollow within, and of a proporrionable dia·
meter, to fllape and cut off the piece at one and the
fame time. After thefe planchets have been prepared
and weighed with llandard pieces, filed or fcraped tO
get off the fuperfluous par! of the metal, and then
boiled and made dean, they arrive, at lall, at the ma·
chine, (Plate LXVI. fig.
1.),
which marks them
upon the edge; and finally, the mili, (fig.
2.)
which, fqueezing each of themfingly between the two
dyes, brought near each other Wilh one blow, forces
the llVO furfaces or fields of the piece to 611 exaélly all
the vacancies of the two figures engraved hollow.
The engine which fuves to laminate lead, gives a fuf·
6cient notion of that IVhich ferves to flaten gold and
filver lamin:e betlVeen rollers of a lell'er fize. See LA·
MINATING.
The principal pieces of the machine, (fig.
r.),
to
{Iamp coins on the edge, are twO lleel ¡aminre, about
a
line thick. One half of the legend, or of the ring, is
engraved on the thicknefs of one of the laminre; and
theother half on the thicknefs of the other; and thefe
two lamina! are Ilraight, ahhough the planchet marked
\Vith them be circular.
When they Ilamp
a
planchet, they firll put it be·
tIVeen the lamina! in fuch a manner, as that thefe be·
ing each of them laid flatO upon a copper.plate, IVhicn
is faflened upon a very thick 1V00den table, and the
planchet being likewife laiJ Hat upon lhe fame plate,
the edge of the planchet may touch the tIVOlamiu:!: on
each fide, and in their thick parro
One of thefe laminre is immoveable, and [allened
Wilh