192 REVIEWS—HISTORY OF COINS, MEDALS, AND SEALS. 
Coins, Medals, and Seals, Ancient and Modern; Illustrated and 
described. With a sketch of the history of coins and Coinage, 
instructions for young collectors, tables of comparative rarity, 
price lists of English and American coins, medals, and tokens, c., 
§c. Edited by W. C. Prime, author of “ Boat Life in Egypt and 
Nubia,” &¢. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1861. 
The author of this neatly executed and tastefully illustrated work 
begins his preface with the remark: “This volume is published 
without any pretence to novelty.” There is, however, a very notable 
novelty in the issue of such a work with its preface dating from New 
York, and its copyright secured “ in the Clerk’s Office of the District 
Court”’ of that state, according to Act of Congress. As a popular 
hand-book for the young numismatist, it is a highly creditable and 
significant production. It undertakes too much within the compass 
of its two hundred and eighty pages to be of great practical value 
for the minute requirements of the experienced coin collector; but 
as an introduction to numismatic studies, and a help to the young 
beginner in the stocking and valuing of his cabinet, it is well suited 
for its purpose ; while to the numismatist who feels any interest in 
the coins and medals of the New World, it offers some curious 
information, such as will be highly appreciated in some quarters. If 
it were our purpose to trace either the facts or the illustrations to 
their original sources, it would not be difficult to show the process of 
compilation by which the work has been got up; but we rather turn 
to the only department in which the numismatist has any reason to 
look for authoritative information on the subject treated of, viz., the 
mints and coinage of the New World. 
Chapter VI. is devoted to the American Colonial and United 
States coinage, in which characteristically enough, the history begins 
with the primitive wampum, and the native systems of barter. 
From this may be learned what are the rare and prized treasures of 
the American numismatist ; the Gomers Island piece of Bermuda, 
of which only three specimens are known; the Pine Tree coinage ; 
and the Serub Oak shilling of Massachusetts, a source of quarrel 
between the Colonists and the Crown, till a witty New Englander 
told Charles II. that the device was none other than the Royal Oak 
that saved his majesty’s life. 
A good story is told of John Hull, the Mint-master of Boston, by 
whom the Pine Tree money was coined. He received for his labour 
