248 



provincial mints bear the date of the year in which they were 

 struck, and those of each town are distinguished by the initial 

 letter of its name. But the York mintage is remarkable for 

 having impressed upon some of the coins of both years a capital 

 y, and upon others a small y, a distinction for which numis- 

 matists are unable to discover any satisfactory reason.^ 



Specimens are extant of all the York coins of this mintage,^ 

 the legends and devices upon each denomination being the 

 same ^ : — 



Obv. GULiELMVS III. DEI GRA. The king's head laureated, 



the letter Y or y under the bust. 

 Rev. MAG BR FRA ET HiB REX. 1696 or 1697. The arms » 

 of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, in four 

 separate shields, and of Nassau in the centre. 

 "We learn from a report presented to the house of commons 

 in April 1697 by a committee appointed to inquire into the 

 miscarriages of the officers of the mint, that the proceedings of 

 some of the provincial mints in the preceding year had not 

 been creditable to those intrusted with the management of them. 

 The report states that in the mints of York and Norwich there 



•when the old monies were called in, I desired an account of what monies were 

 coined at the mint, which by his books he showed me was £312,520 Os. 6d." 

 Vol. I. p. 447. Mr. Drake refers to a MS. collection of James West Esq., from 

 the papers of Benjamin "Woodnot, then comptroller of the coins, in which the York 

 mint is put down thus : Silver, 67000lbs. 423oz. Tale, £209,011 6s. Od. Eborac. 

 Appx. p. cviii. Neither of these accounts agree with that given by Folkes, who 

 states the quantity of hammered money and wrought plate brought to the York 

 mint at 99,0231bs., which at £3 2s. the lb. weight, gives the total money coined 

 £306,971 6s. Table of silver coins, p. 124. The particularity of the statement in 

 Mr. Hayncs's pamphlet entitles it to be regarded as the best authority. 



* Thoresby's Museum contained two specimens of each year's mintage, those of 

 1696 being marked with the Eoman Y, and those of 1697 with the small y. Hence 

 he naturally but erroneously concluded that the larger letter denoted the former, 

 and the smaller one the latter year. Ducatus, p. 386. 



2 Hawkins, pp. 229, 230. Specimens of those distinguished by the Eoman Y, 

 which are of great rarity, were in the late Mr. Cuff's collection. 



' Ending, pi. 36, Nos. 13, 18, 23. In the third edition of the Annals it is stated 

 that crowns were minted at York on this occasion ; and in a note, Vol. II. p. 233, 

 the editor observes that " Drake has omitted the crown-piece." But this is clearly 

 a mistake. No crowns of the York mint are anywhere described. 



