MEDAL. 



i 



Ihis study are indebted to Dr. Combe for 

 their present knowledge of the skeata, 

 who caused several of them to be en- 

 graved; the most ancient have figures of 

 serpents impressed on them, sometimes 

 with the addition of one or two letters, 

 but legends were subsequently intro- 

 duced : it is obvious, from the symbols, 

 they all belong to the period when the 

 Pagan rm tholoiry prevailed. The hep- 

 tarchic pennies do not occur till after the 

 year 700, though there are skeatas of 

 Ethelbert I. King of Kent, between 560 

 and 616 ; and of Egbert, monarch of the 

 same district, anno 664. It is by no means 

 necessary to trace all the coins of the hep- 

 tarchy, it will be sufficient to say, that 

 those of the principal sovereigns exist, 

 - almost in a complete series, from Egbert 

 in 832 to Edgar 959 ; the generality of 

 them -have badly executed portraits on 

 - the obverse, but the reverses are far more 

 "interesting, presenting elevations of cathe- 

 c drals and other structures, particularly 

 . - York Minster, on one of Edward, senior, 



A. D. 900. 



The coins of Anlaf. King of Northum- 

 bria, bear a raven ; Egbert's have the 

 legend Saxoimm instead of Anglomm ,- 

 and the pennies of Athelstan have Rex 

 tot. Jlrit. Exclusive of these royal coins, 

 there were others purely ecclesiastic, 

 which are exlant between 804 and 889, 

 and were struck by several archbishops 

 of Canterbury. Except on the money of 

 Alfred and Edward I. that has towns ad- 

 ded, only the names of the moneyers 

 were introduced ; from the time of Athel- 

 stan, anno 925, the conjunction became 

 general. Neglect or policy prevented 

 William of Normandy from making any 

 alteration in the English penny, and in 

 some instances he adopted the same re- 

 verses used by his predecessor, Harold 

 the usurper. This penny possessed many 

 intrinsic qualities, which rendered it more 

 acceptable to the inhabitants of the north- 

 ern kingdoms, Italy and France, than 

 their own ; hence it may be concluded, 

 that the commerce of England was ex- 

 tensive even at that remote period, par- 

 ticularly as the first mentioned nations 

 had scarcely any other medium. It is a 

 singular circumstance, and much to the 

 credit of our native land, that it furnishes 

 a complete series of pennies from the 

 reign of Egbert to the present moment, 

 with the exception of those of John and 

 llichard I. whose coins were in the first 

 case Irish, and in the last French ; if these 

 monarchs had any struck in England, 

 they have not yet been discovered : in 



this particular we exceed every nation on 

 the globe. The earliest pennies weigh 

 22j grains, troy ; at the close of the reign 

 of Edward III. they weigh 18 grains, they 

 then fell to 15 ; and in that of Edward IV. 

 they are 12 ; Edward VI. reduced the 

 penny to 8 grains ; and Elizabeth to 7-21. 

 The next coins of antiquity are the half- 

 pennies and farthings, of silver, which 

 were first made permanently by order of 

 Edward I. and continued till the revolu- 

 tion in the time of Charles I. ; but the 

 farthings were discontinued after the 

 death of Edward VI. Those were suc- 

 ceeded by the groat piece, introduced by 

 Edward III. and the testoon, or shilling, 

 by Henry VII.; the former term is said to 

 be derived from teste, or tete, the head 

 of the king impressed upon it ; the latter 

 evidently comes from the German word 

 schelling. The crown piece, of silver, 

 was first issued by Henry VIII.; and 

 Elizabeth coined three-halfpenny and 

 three-farthing pieces, which were not 

 continued by her successors. 



Henry VIII. was the first of our mo- 

 narchs who ventured to debase the money 

 of his realm ; and Mr. Pinkerton justly 

 exclaims " it was a debasement indeed ' 

 for it extended to 66.| per cent :" that 

 issued by him, bearing his profile, is of 

 the ancient standard ; but that with his 

 portrait in front, is of the description 

 alluded to. Edward VI. who was the last 

 monarch that had his bust thus repre- 

 sented, exactly reversed his father's ex- 

 ample, as his coin, with the side face, is 

 bad, and the full face good. The base 

 coin of this king is the first which is 

 dated; the silver coin was restored to 

 the original standard in 1552 ; and since 

 1601, 18 pennyweights of alloy has been 

 used in the pound weight- 



Henry III. introduced the coinage of 

 gold : his attempt appears, however, to 

 have been unsuccessful, as only two spe- 

 cimens have reached our time, and are 

 called the gold penny ; they are larger 

 than that of silver, and tolerably execut- 

 ed : it is to Edward III. therefore, we are 

 indebted for the establishment of the sys- 

 tem still prevailing, which the last named 

 prince commenced in 1344 with the flo- 

 rens, then worth six shillings, but now 

 greatly increased in value, and thus call- 

 ed from Florence, where the best gold 

 was coined at that period. Half and quar- 

 ter florens were made at the same time, 

 though none of the former have descend- 

 ed to us. The floren being found incon- 

 venient, from the value not according 



