Watch List notes:

GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES. New-York, Wednesday, December 5, 1792. Volume IV, No. 54. Tabloid [41 by 25 cm]. 4 pages. Removed from previous binding; very good or better. The Gazette enjoyed quoting lengthy passages of Congressional debates and discussions when it suited them-and it suited them often-and when they had space to fill. Well over 25 column inches are devoted in this issue to John Page's efforts to determine if the ratios used in a proposed act for regulating the value of foreign coins ("A bill for regulating foreign coins under consideration, which enacts that the gold coins of Great-Britain and Portugal shall be a legal tender for payment of all debts, at the rate of one dollar for every twenty-seven grains of the actual weight thereof, and the gold coins of France and Spain at the rate of one dollar for every twenty-seven and two-fifths of a grain of the weight thereof") are accurate: "From what fell from some gentlemen, he said, it appeared that they thought the examination of the relative value of coins could only be ascertained by an assayer. He affirmed that any person acquainted with the use of an hydrostatic balance might easily examine them: That it was with reluctance he said any thing which might look like a scientific parade, but he thought it his duty to bring forward the enquiry he made; and what had fallen from some gentlemen compelled him to explain and support his motion." Ex Syd Martin Library.