244 



man's estate several years before the commencement of the civil 

 war, and we may regard his testimony respecting an event 

 which occurred at York in the year 1642, as that of a contem- 

 porary, and very probably an eye-witness. ^ 



The existing York coins of King Charles I., which are by 

 no means rare, are the only evidences that remain to us of the 

 operations of his York mint. All other records of its proceed- 

 ings have wholly disappeared. Unfortunately, none of these 

 coins have the year of their mintage denoted upon them, like 

 some which were struck at Oxford and other places, but from 

 the number and variety of their types we may perhaps infer 

 that as the York mint was first erected immediately after the 

 Earl of Newcastle entered the city as Lieutenant General of the 

 royal army in the North, its operations were continued during 

 the whole time that he held the city for the King, namely from 

 January 164| to July 1644, when his defeat at the battle of 

 Marston Moor, placed the government of York in the hands 

 of the parliamentarians. 



The denominations of coin struck at the York mint of King 

 Charles I. were half-crowns, shillings, sixpences, and three- 

 pences, all of the ordinary currency of the country, none of 

 them being of the nature of siege-pieces like those of Pontefract, 

 Newark, Chester, &c. The mint-mark by which they are 

 distinguished is invariably a Lion passant guardant. 

 Half-crowns. 



1. Obv. CAROLVS D G MAG BRI FR ET HI REX. The king 



on horseback, a sword erect in his right hand. 

 Rev. CHRisTo AvspiCE REGNO. Square shield of the royal 

 arms between c and r.^ 



2. Obv. CAROLVS D G MAG BRIT FRAN ET HIB REX. The 



king on horseback, ebor under the horse. 



* Thoresby in his diary imder the date of October 1682, mentions Mr. Hildyard, 

 and describes bim as " Lawyer Hilliard, an ingenious antiquary." Thoresby's 

 Diary, by Kev. J. Hunter ; Vol. I. p. 135. He was a younger brother of Sir Robert 

 Hildyard of "Winestead in Holderness, the first baronet of that antient Yorkshire 

 family. He was bom in 1615 and died in 1694. 



2 Hawkins, pi. 41, No. 495. The bust of the king and the square shield, Mr. 

 Hawkins obseryes, are clearly after the model introduced by Briot in 1632. p. 176. 



