( "IV 



i .-IN. 



i to hare struck coin* ; but only two or three such are known, 

 and those of person* rsstteJ to the king. Pennies are extent ascribed 

 to Robert ear! of Olouosster, bastard son of Henry I.; to Henry bishop 

 of Winchester, bees brother of Stephen ; and to Eustace, Stephen's son. 

 They are all of great rarity, a* b the coin which bear* the full-length 

 eOgw* of Stephen and Henry I L The coin of Robert, however, is by 

 (MM ascribed to Robert duke of Normandy, the eldest eon of the 

 Conqueror. Henry II., according to Ruding, had but one type; but 

 there eettn* every reason to believe that the pennies which usually go 

 by the name of the first coinage of King Henry III. are in reality the 

 Ust coinage of Henry IL at the time he reformed hb money, A.D. 1180. 

 Of Richard I. and John we hare no English money; but pence, half- 

 pane*, and farthing* are extent of John, all struck in Ireland. Those 

 come with a full face, bounded by the inner circle, have the inscription 

 IOBAXXU DOM., and were struck at the time hb father made him lord 

 of Ireland; those which gire the face inclosed in a triangle, and 

 IOB AXXES BEX , were coined after he ascended the throne. The farthing 

 of thb last coinage b extremely rare. Of John's coin*, Dublin ap)>cani 

 to have been the only place of mintage. Henry III. 1 * pennies, (if those 

 which we hare considered a* the latest pennies of Henry II. really do 

 not belong to Henry III.) hare usually the numerab added to hb 

 name, HEHRICTS REX IIL Some of hb pennies have BEXRICVS REX 

 TEBC-I, and a few BEXRICTS REX AHO. Hb coinage, if we may judge 

 from the quantity of hb pennies which still remain, must have been 

 a very extensive one. Halfpence and farthings are spoken of in a 

 record of thb reign, but none have appeared. The pennies of Edward 

 I. II. and III. are usually thus distinguished by our antiquaries : thoee 

 which give the king's name EDW. are ascribed to Edward I.; those with 

 EDW A., EDWAR., and EDWARD, to Edward II.; those with EDWABDVS, to 

 King Edward III. A few with EDW. are known certainly to belong to 

 Edward L, particularly those which have a moneycr's name on the 

 reverse, ROBERT DE HADELEIE, who b known from records to have 

 been a moneyer in 1280. Both Henry III. and Edward I. struck 

 pennies in Ireland, in the manner of John's Liter coins, representing 

 the king's head within a triangle. Edward I. struck halfpence and 

 farthings in hb great coinage of 1279, which are not unfrequently met 

 with in the cabinet* of collectors, as well as halfpence and farthings 

 with the Irish type, struck at Dublin and Waterford. It may be suffi- 

 cient, a* regards these small coins, to say that they continued in cur- 

 rency for several centuries. The last silver farthing is known to have 

 been coined in the reign of Edward VI., but no specimen of it has been 

 seen : the bet silver halfpenny was struck under the Commonwealth. 

 The penny has continued through every reign to the present Our 

 limits will not allow of further minute description. Among the rarest 

 in the later part of the series may be reckoned the pennies of 

 Edward VI., Mary, and Philip and Mary. From the reign of Edward I. 

 to Henry VIII., we have pennies which bear the privy marks of the 

 Bishop* of Durham ; from Henry IV. to Henry VIII.. we have coins 

 struck in the archiepbcopal mint at York ; and others of the see of 

 Canterbury, from Archbishop Bourchier to Archbishop Cranmer. The 

 first English pennies were 221 grains troy. Towards the close of Ed- 

 ward III. the penny weighs 18 grains, and in the reign of Edward IV. 

 it fell to 12, after previously sinking to 15. In Edward VI. 's time, 

 1551, the penny was reduced to 8 grains, and after the 43rd of Eliz. to 

 7D grains, at which weight it still continues. The penny affords the 

 best rule for estimating the other silver coins. 



According to Grmfton, Henry III., in 1249, ordered groat* to be 

 stamped, but none such are mentioned in any record. There b a 

 largo piece however found occasionally in the cabinets of the curious, 

 sometimes ascribed to Edward I., but whether hb, or Edward II. 's, or 

 Edward III. 1 *, b uncertain. It occurs of different weights, from 80 to 

 138 grains, and represent* the king's head on it* obverse, within a 

 double treasure of four arches, with mullet* and roses; inscribed 

 EDWARDVS Dl. OR. REX. AXOL. The reverse, besides a continuation of 

 the king's titles in the outer circle, has cm. LONDOXIA within an inner 

 one. There can be little doubt that it was a trial-piece. Groats 

 and half-groat* were not introduced for currency till the 25th Edward 

 I II., and continue at present, though not for circulation. A silver 

 fuurpenny piece for circulation, of a different type from the ordinary 

 froat, wa* issued for circubtion by William IV., in 1888. The groat 

 received its name from the French grot, a large piece. In the time of 

 Henry VII. and Henry VIII. groat* and half-groats were struck in the 

 archiepbcopal mint* of Canterbury and York. It was one of the 

 charges against Wobey, that be had put the cardinal's hat upon the 

 king's money, as b seen upon hb York groat* and half-groat*. 



The testoon, or shilling, was first coined by Henry VII., in 1603. 

 The appellation of tostoon was from the tale or tttt, the head of the 

 king, upon it : that of shilling b of old but uncertain origin. Pin 

 kerton says, that coins of that name had been struck at Hamburg in 

 1 407. The rtillm j wa* a denomination of money in the Saxon times. 

 Henry VIII. struck some pattern* for aUver crown ; but the 

 first crown for currency wa* struck by Edward VI., with the half, 

 crown, sixpence, and threepence. Queen Elizabeth, in 1658, corned 

 three-halfpenny, and in 1641 three-farthing piece*. Pinkerton say* 

 they were dropped hi 1682, but there b a three-halfpenny piece in the 

 cabinet* of the British Museum, bearing the date of 1699. Charles I. 

 struck twenty-shilling and ten shilling pieces in silver, but they 

 of very limited currency. 



From the 43rd Elisabeth, 1401, the denomination*, weight, and 

 fineness of English silver have remained the same, with the exception 

 of the florin of two (hilling* and the fourpenny piece. It b worthy 

 of remark, that, during all hb distresses, Charles I. never debased 

 i .- | 



The gold coinage of England U next to the silver in point of 

 antiquity. The gold current with u*, till the 41st Henry III., was 

 foreign. In that year, 1257, a manuscript chronicle, in the archive* of 

 the city of London, state* that the king made a penny of the fluent 

 gold, which weighed two sterlings, and willed that it should be current 

 fur twentypence. Three specimens of it only are yet known to hare 

 reached u* ; and two out of the three are preeerred in the British 

 Museum. They are from different die*. Thb coin b engraved in 

 Snelling'i ' View of the Gold Coin,' in the lost edition of Folkes's 

 ' Tables, 1 and in Pinkerton's ' Essay on Medals. 1 It b from Edward 

 III. that the series of English gold coin really commences, for no more 

 occurs till 1344, when thai prince struck florins. The half and quarter- 

 florin were struck at the same time. The florin was then to go for 

 six shillings, though now it would be intrinsically worth nineteen. 

 Thb coin being inconvenient, as forming no aliquot part of larger 

 ideal denominations, seem* to hare been withdrawn. None have yet 

 been found, but a few quarter-florin* are preserved in cabinets, and 

 one half -florin b known. In consequence, in the same year, the noble 

 was published, of 6t. 8d. value, forming half a mark, then the most 

 general ideal form of money. The obverse represent* the king standing 

 in a vessel, asserting the dominion of the sea. The noble was also 

 attended by it* half and quarter. Thb coin, sometimes called the 

 rose noble, together with its divisions, continued the only gold c..in. 

 till the angels of Edward IV., 1465, stamped with the angel Michael 

 and the dragon, and the angeleta] or half-angels, were substituted in 

 their place. Henry V. b said to have diminished the noble, still 

 making it go for its former value. Henry VI. restored it to its size, 

 and caused it to pass for 10*., under the new name of ry.il. The 

 1P. and the angel of 6*. &/., with their divisions of half and quart* r, 

 then continued the sole gold coins till, in 1485, Henry VII. issued the 

 double ryal, or sovereign, of 20*., accompanied by the double sovereign 

 of 40. Henry VIII., in 1527, added to the gold denominations the 

 crown and half-crown, at their present value, and in the some year gave 

 sovereigns of 22*. 6</., ryals of 11*. 3d., angels of 7*. 6rf., and nobles at 

 their old value of 6*. 8d. In 1546 he struck sovereigns of the former 

 value of 20*., and half-sovereigns in proportion. Henry Vlllth's gold, 

 like his silver coin, was in the latter part of his reign much debased. 

 Edward VI. coined a treble sovereign ; and under James I. the sove- 

 reign was called a unite. The former coins however continued, with ,1 

 few variations, till Charles II. coined the guinea, so called from the 

 Guinea gold, out of which it was first struck in 1663, when it w;it 

 proclaimed to go for 20*., but by tacit and universal consent never went 

 for lee* than 21*. Charles II. likewise issued half-guineas, double 

 guineas, and five-guinea pieces, which his successor)), till George IV., 

 continued. George I. and George III. issued quarter-guineas ; and 

 George III. pieces of seven shillings in 1797. In 1815 sovereigns and 

 half-sovereigns, of 20. and 10*. each, were again coined, and the 

 guinea and half-guinea were gradually withdrawn from circulation. 



With the exception of the styca, the copper coinage of England arose 

 a thousand years later than its silver. Queen Elizabeth had a great 

 aversion to copper money, although the necessities of her people for 

 small change were obvious. She suffered a pattern to be struck as the 

 PLEDGE. OF. A. HALF PENNY, and James I. and Charles I. actually issued 

 farthing tokens also as pledges ; but no authorised coinage of copper 

 was struck till 1672, when halfpence and farthings of that metal were 

 first made public money. In 1684 tin farthings were coined, with a 

 stud of copper in the centre. Others, as well as halfpence of the same 

 metal, were struck by James II., and William and Mary. In 1693 the 

 tin was called in, and copper renewed. Pieces of a penny and two- 

 pence in copper were coined in the reign of George III. The latter 

 did not answer their purpose, and were soon discontinued. In 1852, 

 half-farthings were coined, chiefly for use in the colonies ; and in Un- 

 parliamentary session of 1859, the chancellor of the exchequer an- 

 nounced the intention to change the copper coinage for one of a mixed 

 and harder metal, of which the weight of each coin would be about 

 half it* present weight. Neither the denominations nor the value 

 were to be changed. 



Our space will allow us to say less than we could wish upon the 

 money struck in France by English princes. Of Anglo-Gallic silver 

 coins we have deniers of Eleanor, wife of Henry II., as duchess of 

 Aquitaine, with deniers and half -deniers of Henry II., and pennies and 

 half-pennies of Aquitaine, and pence of Poitou and Rouen of Richard I. 

 Of John and Henry III. we know of no Anglo-French money; l>nt 

 there b a lion of billon of Edward I., coined during the lifetime of hi- 

 father after he had received Gascony, and a plentiful series of 

 and billon coins of Edward III., of Edward the Black Prince, of 

 Richard II., Henry IV., V., and VI. The denominations of the silver 

 were the hard!, double hardi, groat, half-groat, penny, and half-p. nny. 

 In thb class also fall the Calais groats and half-groat* of the sovereigns 

 of England, from Edward III. to Henry VI., and the Toumay groaU 

 of Henry VIII. Edward III. was the first of the English princes who 

 struck gold money in France; the denominations were guii-im..;.-, 

 leopard, chabe, and mouton ; to these Edward the Black Prince a. 1.1. .l 



