240 



the pieces whicli were minted there in this reign are posterior 

 to that time, and were not improbably coined, some of them at 

 least, when the king was at York in his magnificent and 

 memorable progress into Scotland in the year 1633." ^ Mr. Haw- 

 kins observes that the York mint is said to have been established 

 about 1629. He admits that of the operations of the mint we 

 have few records except the coins themselves, and their dates 

 can only be conjectured from the nature of the types. Tradition, 

 he adds, assigns the earliest York coin to the year 1633, " and 

 a comparison of types does not contradict the statement." ^ 

 These traditions, however, are wholly unsupported by historical 

 evidence. Had a mint been erected at York, either at the 

 commencement or at any subsequent period of Lord Strafford's 

 presidency of the North, or during any of the visits made by 

 King Charles to the city previously to his breach with the 

 Parliament, it is in the highest degree improbable that no 

 notice of a circumstance of so much importance and notoriety 

 should be found among the numerous existing records of the 

 public proceedings and local transactions of the time. Yet 

 such is the fact, and beyond the resemblance of types mentioned 

 by Mr. Hawkins, we have no ground whatever for the supposi- 

 tion that a mint was in operation at York at any period of 

 the reign of King Charles I. earlier than the year 1642. 



It is well known that during several months of the spring and 

 summer of 1642, King Charles chiefly resided and held his 

 court in the city of York. On the 10th of June in that memor- 

 able year, the houses of lords and commons published a mani- 

 festo, in which, after charging their sovereign with intending 

 to make war against his parliament, they declared that all 

 persons who should bring in for the use of the parliament any 

 ready money or plate, or undertake to furnish horse, horsemen, 

 or arms, would render good and acceptable service to the com- 

 monwealth. ^ This was followed, within a week afterwards, by 



1 Folkes's Table of English Silver Coins. 4to., 1736, p. 79. The king's visit to 

 York in 1633 was very short. He entered the city on Friday the 24th and left it 

 on Tuesday the 28th of May. 



2 Hawkins, p. 176. 3 Husband's Collection, p. 339. 



