60 NOTES ON CIVIL- WAR COINS. 



for a pattern or trial piece of a new design. However that 

 may be, the unknown artist inserted four marks which serve to 

 connect this shilling with the half-crowns of both Weymouth 

 and Sandsfoot, while the cross made up of roses can be seen 

 in a rather similar form on the reverse of No. 5 on the Plate. 

 On the whole, I think that the probabilities will not be strained 

 if we regard shilling No. 6 as having been struck in the local 

 mint, or at all events from the local dies. 



In the national collection I also saw at least three shillings 

 (in addition to the two examples already noticed and illus- 

 trated), one sixpence, two groats, and one threepence, which 

 were arranged by Hawkins in the uncertain classes, although 

 he had recognised and mentioned elsewhere in his book their 

 general resemblance to the Weymouth types. At present 

 I am not able to comment in detail on the last -mentioned 

 items, as my notes were unfinished when the facilities for 

 studying the collections at the British Museum were with- 

 drawn and the galleries closed to visitors, owing to the war. 



Nevertheless these smaller coins can be provisionally 

 ascribed to Sandsfoot or Weymouth, either by reason of 

 their style or by the mint-marks, more especially the helmet. 



It may have been observed that the greater part of the 

 SA. and W. coins and their cognate types are half-crowns, 

 and that the lesser denominations are sparsely represented. 

 This peculiarity is characteristic of the output of nearly all 

 the country mints during the Civil War, and no entirely 

 satisfactory motive for the preference given to that coin has 

 yet been suggested. The most probable explanation is that 

 it was comparatively easy to strike a half-crown, and that 

 the making of small coins was more than usually difficult 

 at a time when the mechanical appliances were crude and the 

 v.'orkmen untrained. This view is supported at any rate by 

 the fact that the majority of the coins of small diameters 

 are of more barbarous workmanship than the pieces of two 

 and sixpence, a defect which could be expected, as they 

 needed a skilful manipulation of the hammer and dies in 

 order to obtain a good result. An alternative suggestion is 



