THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 57 



nets, is not the object ot this paper. Not unfrequently, when the real 

 coins of a certain date are unobtainable by the collector, imitations 

 of them are used, and these go by the name of Paduans and Beckers. 

 Becker was, an artist of Frankfort, who excelled in imitating coins, 

 but never used his skill for the purpose of deception, honestly selling 

 his productions as avowed copies, which are admitted into cabinets 

 under the name of Beckers. Paduans derive their name from two 

 brothers at Padua, celebrated for the same work as Becker. The 

 shilling of Henry VII. is remarkable as being the firsc silver coin of 

 that value ever struck. A silver groat of Perkin Warbeck, dated 

 1494, is a great rarity, having been struck by the order of the 

 Duchess of Burgundy for Perkin Warbeck when he set out to invade 

 England. The erroneous idea of a Queen Anne's farthing being 

 scarce and of great value, arose through the advertisement of an old 

 lady who had lost one, which stated that it was one of the only three 

 known, and worth at least ;^ioo. There are several types of these 

 farthings, but the only one intended for currency bears date 1714, 

 the others being merely struck as patterns, and they are not un 

 common. The farthing and the sixpence of Oliver Cromwell are 

 much more scarce, for after he had stamped his head upon them he 

 was afraid to issue them as currency. The crown piece of Cromwell 

 is very scarce, and there is a tradition that the die became cracked 

 across the neck after a tew impressions were struck, which having 

 been considered ominous, the issue was stopped and the coin recalled. 



The large penny pieces of William IV. are scarce, owing to a 

 rumor current, which caused the Jews to buy them up, that a cru- 

 cible of gold had accidently been mixed with the copper composing 

 those pieces during coinage, and that by remelting them this gold 

 could be extracted. Whether such was the case or not history will 

 never record, as the mysteries of the mint are kept sacred, and its 

 records are never made public. 



Until the reign of Charles 11. , the coinage had been struck 

 by a process as old as the 13th century, when Edward I. invited 

 skilled artists from Florence to improve the rude money then 

 current, and the methods adopted by them were maintained. By 

 these artists, or designers, the metal was divided by shears, and then 

 stamped and shaped by the hammer, everything being left to the eye 

 and the hand of the workman. Some pieces consequently were 

 larger or smaller, few were exactly round, and the rims were not 



