MONEY. 
principal town in the kingdom, on the 10th of February, 
1817. The exchange was effe&ed in a few days, and with 
much lei's inconvenience to the public than was expe&ed. 
The new lilver coins are very different in appearance 
from the old. They are thicker, and of courfe narrower. 
The head on the (hillings and fixpences is a handfome 
copy of that on the bank-tokens laft iflued; but bears 
not much refemblance to his majefty. On the reverfe is 
the fhield containing the royal arms as fettled on the 12th 
of October, 1814, when the prince regent, in the name 
and on behalf of his majefty, alfumed the title of king of 
Hanover: a crown is therefore fubftituted for the elec¬ 
toral bonnet; the fhield is encircled with the garter of 
that order, and its motto, as on the laft new guineas. 
The half-crown is the firft that has appeared during the 
prefent reign. It exhibits a monftrous head, like no king 
paft or prefent. The fhield on the reverfe is encircled 
with the collar of the order of the Garter, within which 
is the garter, and the badge (the George) is appendant. 
Each of the pieces has on the edge of the fhield the mint- 
mark W.W.P. and on the oppofite edge W. (See Mint- 
mark, p. 547.) In confequence of fome remarks that 
had been made upon the half-crown in the houfe of 
commons, a new one appeared while this fheet was in the 
prefs, (May 20.) In this coin the head is foftened down, 
and is indeed now by far too young: the letters of the 
infcription are larger, and the rim is lefs raifed; we 
fhould rather fay perhaps that the coin is not fo much 
funk; indeed the reverfe ftands very prominent and un- 
protefted, and thus will foon wear out: the collar of 
the garter round the fhield is omitted, and the crown is 
’funk into the garter; by which means the fhield is made 
larger, and its parts are more diftinft. Upon the whole, 
this is a much handfomer coin than the former; but the 
likenefs of his majefty ftill remains a defideratum. 
It has been the earneft wifli of many diftinguifhed cha¬ 
racters, among whom we may recolleCt with advantage 
the names of Pope and Addifon, that this country would 
adopt the ancient pradtice of commemorating important 
events on the reveries of its coins. We do not fee that 
any other than beneficial confequences, both to prefent 
and future times, could rel'ult from its adoption ; for 
furely it would be not lefs gratifying to the ftatefman or 
the admiral, to fee his great deeds interwoven with the 
vital threads of that commerce which they had promoted, 
than to anticipate what may be fculptured on his monu¬ 
ment. The real King's Arms is the Eritifh thunder! 
and it might thus continue to reverberate through time 
and fpace, when it is either fuccefsfully wielded at the 
mouth of the Nile, or launched on the Atlantic ocean. 
Warmed by fuch willies, the mufe of Pope breaks forth 
with more than her accuftomed fervour: 
Oh! when /hall Britain, confcious of her claim, 
Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame? 
In living medals fee her wars enroll’d ? 
Pope was, however, very far from wifhing that only vic¬ 
tories fhould be thus recorded : he would have blufhed 
to have found it neceftary to compare (their real advan¬ 
tage to fociety being the tell) the difcoveries of Locke, 
Bacon, or Newton, with the moft brilliant victories that 
were ever obtained. Had he lived in our time, he would 
probably have defired that a coin fhould be ftruck when 
Cook returned from circumnavigating the globe ; or 
when a tedious and deftruftive war was terminated by an 
honourable peace; or when Great Britain was politically 
united to Ireland; or when the Royal, Britifh, or Lon¬ 
don, Inftitutions were eftablifhed. Genius in art, fci- 
ence, or literature, is more rare, as well as more intrinfi- 
cally valuable, than in war: Garrick has well oblerved, 
that, 
--we have thousands that fight; 
But one, only one, like our Shakefpeare can write. 
And, if Pope has dwelt with lefs heroic effort, he has not 
You. XV. No. 1074. 
661 
dwelt with lefs obvious pleafure, upon the arts of adorn¬ 
ment, than upon thofe of deftfuCtion. With the zeal of 
a poet and a philofopher, in which we may honeftly join, 
he is defirous that the verfe and fculpture fhould bear an 
equal part, “And art refleCt its images on art!" And 
the fincerity of his attachment to the union of patriotic 
with private virtue, is evinced by the conclufion of his 
Epiftle; where he is alfo defirous that a diftinguifhed 
ftatefman, who had fliown liimfelf the common friend of 
art and man, fhould fhine on the “ preft ore.” 
The ftandard finenefs of gold coins in England is 22 ca¬ 
rats, or ; and the ftandard finenefs of filver coins 
is 11 oz. 2 dwt. or | r §. Wrought gold, however, has two 
legal ftandards; the one 22 carats, as above, and the other 
18 carats; the latter began’in 1798, and is chiefly ufed 
for watch-cafes and rings. Wrought filver has Iikewife 
two legal ftandards; the one n oz. 3 dwt. as above, and 
the other 8 dwt. better ; that is, 11 oz. 10 dwt. The lat¬ 
ter, which is called new Jlerling, is of ancient /landing, but 
feldom ufed. 
Befides the legal finenefs for coins, there is alfo a ftand¬ 
ard weight fixed by law. Thus, in England, a pound troy 
of ftandard gold is coined into 44I guineas, and of ftand¬ 
ard filver into 62s. But, by the law for the new filver 
coinage, (June 1816,) the ftandard weight of filver is al¬ 
tered, but the finenefs both of this metal and of gold re¬ 
mains unchanged. The new ftandard weight of Engliflt. 
filver coin is, that one pound troy of ftandard finenefs 
fhall be coined into 66s. Thus the weight of the new 
(hilling is 3 dwt. 13-^vgr. and the other new filver coins; 
in proportion. No alteration is to take place in the gold 
coins ; but gold pounds are to be coined in proportion to 
the guinea. Each will therefore be 0 f a guinea, and 
muft weigh 5 dwt. 3£-f;ygr. of ftandard gold, and 113 gr. 
of pure gold, without any allowance for remedy. But, ac¬ 
cording to the regulation which allows a guinea of 5 dwt. 
8 gr. to be a legal tender, the gold pound weighing 3 dwt. 
ijfjlgr. will be alfo legal. 
Silver coin was confidered in England the only legal 
ftandard of value, until the year 1728; and gold coins 
fluctuated in their price according to the plenty or fcar- 
city of that metal. The guinea, which was firft minted 
in 1621, was iflued at 20s. but it afterwards varied, both 
in its current price and rate of coinage, until the above 
period of 1728, when it was’fixed at its prefent value of 
21s. and then it became a legal tender. 
It has been a queftion of doubt fince that period, whe¬ 
ther filver or gold fhould be the legal meafure of value. 
Mr. Locke and feveral other authorities ftate it to be fil¬ 
ver ; fome are for both metals ; but lord Liverpool, in his 
Letter to the King on the Coins of the Realm, Qbferves, 
that “Coins, which are the principal rneafures of property, 
fhould be compofed of one metal only ; and that this 
fhould be gold.” By a law' of 1799, the queftion was fet¬ 
tled with refpeCl to large payments, as it was then de¬ 
clared that filver fhould not be a legal tender for any fum 
above 25I. but, by the law of 1816, gold is the only legal 
tender that can be made for any fum exceeding 42s. 
Mr. Locke had faid, that gold was not the money of 
the world, nor fit to be fo. The more correif canon is 
laid down by lord Liverpool, that “ Coins fhould be made 
of metals more or lefs valuable in proportion to the wealth 
and commerce of the country in which they are to b® 
the meafure of property.” In illuftration of this impor¬ 
tant idea, his lordfliip proceeds as follows : 
“In very poor countries, coins have been, and ftill are, 
principally made of copper ; and fometimes even of left; 
valuable materials. In countries advanced to a certain, 
degree of commerce and opulence, filver is the metal of 
which coins are principally made. In very rich coun¬ 
tries, and efpecially in thofe where great and extenfive 
commerce is carried on, gold is the moft proper metal of 
which this principal meafure of property, and this inftru- 
ment of commerce, fhould be made; in fuch countries 
8 F gold 
