CHAP. XI. 



GOLD AND SILVER. 305 



very little about their beauty, being only com- 

 pelled to stamp on them the name of the reign- 

 ing sovereign. On account of the scarcity of 

 silver about the year 1^13, the emperor of Ger- 

 many established numerous mints 1 in several 

 cities, and, that the moneyers might practise no 

 deceit, a number of persons were placed in each 

 under the title of adjoints, whose duty it was to 

 buy and receive the metals, to watch carefully 

 all the transactions regarding the real value of 



1 In England, in the establishment of a great number of 

 mints, the practice of the continent was adopted. During the 

 reign of Ethelred, who died in 1017> there were mints in the 

 following towns : Bath, Bristol, Bedford, Buckingham, Cam- 

 bridge, Canterbury, Chester, Chichester, Derby, Dover, 

 Exeter, Gloucester, Huntingdon, Hertford, Jlchester, Ips- 

 wich, Leicester, Lewes, Lincoln, London, Lydford, Maldon, 

 Norwich, Oxford, Reading, Rochester, Shaftesbury, Shrews- 

 bury, Stafford, Stamford, Stan win, Sudbury, Wallingford, 

 Wareham, Watchat, Wilton, Winchester, and Worcester. 



The moneyers, as designated by the initials of their names 

 in the reverses of the coins, amounted to no less than two 

 hundred and forty-three 2 . 



After the Norman conquest, both the mints and the mo- 

 neyers were much reduced in number, so that in the reign of 

 Henry VI., who died in 1461, the only mints in England 

 were at Bristol, Canterbury, Coventry, Durham, London, 

 Norwich, Oxford, and York. In the reign of Henry VII., 

 these were again lessened, and only Canterbury, Durham, 

 York, and London, continued to coin. In the reign of Ed- 

 ward VI. the mint at Durham had ceased to work. In 

 the reign of Elizabeth, all the coin was struck in London, and 

 no traces of the other mints are to be found from that time. 



Ruding's Annals of the Coinage, vol.. i. p. 2G9. 

 VOL. I. X 



