26 T^'ansoctions. 



tokens was the lack of small change. He directed attention to 

 a penny of the time of Edward I. in England and John Balliol 

 in Scotland, which was purely the working-man's coin of the day, 

 and represented his day's wage during many a score of years. 

 It was the only coin they had, and to get what was pro- 

 portionately a half-penny and farthing they broke the penny 

 piece into halves and quarters. For three centuries this state of 

 affairs existed, until Henry VII. made a great reform in the 

 coinage, and he was the first king to put a likeness on coins. 

 Then came Edward the Sixth and Mary the Evil, who issued 

 most base and degraded coins, the result of which was that trades- 

 men I'efused to put up with them any longer. &oon the chandler, 

 the grocer, the baker, the vintner, and other trades people, along 

 with many of the principal households, begun to issue tokens of 

 their own to be used among their own friends, within their own 

 circle, and in their own town. These they made of all kinds of 

 metal — a few of copper, many of tin and pewtei', some of brass, 

 and some even were of leather — stamped. Matters went on in 

 this way till James the Sixth of Scotland journeyed across the 

 Border to become the First of England, the tokens having con- 

 tinually increased. His Blesse.l Majesty, James, when he went 

 south found he could not take his Scottish " bawbee " with him. 

 As towns like Bristol, Worce.ster, and Oxford were issuing these 

 copper coins at fair value, and were making an immense profit out 

 of it, lie, with Scottish ingenuity, thought he might turn a good 

 trade at it too, and he gave a patent to Lord Harrington in 1613 

 to issue " good copper farthings." As a matter of fact, they were 

 worth about a fifth of that sum, and consequently his lordship 

 made something like £30,000 a year out of the business. James, 

 however, soon did away with the patent, and gave Lord Harring- 

 ton some thousands a 3'ear to carry on the trade while he himself 

 secured the profits. From 1618 to 1689 the issue of tokens was 

 widespread, and their mottoes were numerous. In 1671 King 

 Charles II. reformed the coinage by the issue of honest copper 

 pennies and farthings, and in the following year he issued an 

 edict putting a stop to the circulation of trade tokens, and 

 succeeded in suppressing them. William III. and Mary, Anne, 

 George I., George II., George HI., all managed to supply the 

 requii'ements of the public substantially for about 100 

 years. But then there came a dearth of money, and in 



