¢ 
“39796.] 
of generalcirculation. Of this clafs, it 
muft be obferved with regret, that the 
portraits are in general far from being 
accurate ; fuch as they are, however, it 
muft be acknowledged that they are upon 
the whole, not inferior to the effigies of 
the Roman emperors, in coin of the lower. 
€mpire, the {carce ones of which (with- 
out regard to theit barbarous execution, 
or the contemptible or deteftable charac- 
ters of their prototypes) are collected 
with fo much eagernefs and expence. 
_ Our’s are not lefs worthy of being ftyled 
the “© Concifum argénium in titulos facic/- 
que minuas*.” 
In this refpeét alfo, Scotland creeps at 
more than her ufual diftance behind the 
fiter kingdom. Why are the features of 
Buchanan, Napier, the admirable Crich- 
ton, Hume, Robertfon, Black, Cullen, 
and Reid, configned to the fugitive ma- 
terials and faithlefs charge of paper and 
canvafs, and not a fingle medal recording 
their hiftories to pofterity +? 
V. The dignity of others confifts in 
their recording hiftorical events; or 
thowing ‘“¢ the very age and body of 
the time its form and preffure,”’ in bear- 
ing fymbols of the high {pirit of political 
party, which 1s characteriftic of thefe 
days : the naval victory onthe 1ft of June, 
1794; the nuptials of the Prince of 
Wales; the cruel imprifonment of Ridg- 
way and Symonds; and the glorious and 
-memorable acquittal of Hardy and others, 
are recited on London jettons : one exhi- 
bits Paine on a gibbet as a worthlefs cri- 
minal; while others clafs him with Sir 
Thomas More, and mention him with 
applaufe, &c. 
WI. Some, laftly, are merely defcriptive 
and curious: bathing machines and fith- 
ing boats appear on the Lowe/foffe piece ; 
the windings of the Stort canal upon one 
payable at 5//bop- Stortford ; the engraver, 
James, has been very fuccefsful in two 
land{capes upon the oppofite fides of his 
Dudley token ; and his elephant upon the 
Pidcock exbibition pieces, is, at leaft, as 
well reprefented as the fame animal is by 
ancient artifts, upon denariu of the family 
Cecilia, or upon thofe of Fulus and of 
Auguftas. 
I now earneftly folicit the attention of 
all companies and individuals, who may 
en 


* Juvenal in his 5th Satire. a 
+ Befides the meed of merit given to 
diftinguifhed Englifhmen on provincial coins, 
many elegant medals have been ruck of them. . 
In Italy and France alfo, this homage has been 
very liberally beftowed on literary, military, 
and patriotic excellence, during this and the lait 
century, 
State of Provincial Coins. 6g 
‘ 
henceforth be difpofed to employ the art- 
ifts of Birmingham, London, &c. to fa- 
bricate coins for them to the foregoing 
obfervations, which I humbly flatter my- 
{elf will be approved by every perfon of 
tafte who has made the medallic art a 
ftudy ; and it is much to be withed that 
particular injunctions were given to the 
engravers, to have the figures on the 
piece much bolder and higher raifed than 
is ufually done, which is effected by hav - 
ing them more deeply cut into the dye ; 
and the dotted, or plain circle, by which 
the figures on the field are protected, 
fhould be much ftronger and more ele- 
vated ; the fhapes of even moft of thefe 
pieces which I have commended aré too 
thin and broad ; they fhould be encreafed 
in thicknefs, even though their circum- 
ference thould be thereby diminifhed. 
There has been lately communicated 
to me a {mall copper coin; the 4 part of 
a rupee, done for the Eaft India Com- 
pany, by that diftinguifhed leader in 
every ufeful.and elegant art, Mr. Boul- 
ton, of Birmingham, upon a new prine 
ciples admirably calculated to preferve 
both the figures and legend from being 
foon defaced by attrition : the field of the 
piece is protected by a circle, broad, plain, 
and confiderably elevated, into whichthe 
letters are indented in smagho, in the 
fame form as they ufually are round the 
external rim. The improvement is dit- 
ferently modified: in different pieces ; 
fome having circular, and others ellipti- 
cal portions of the field, bearing the 
more intérefting fubjefts of the defign 
funken deeper than the level of the ex- 
terior parts. The origin of this beau- 
tiful invention feems to have been from 
the hand of Dupré, a Parifian artift, in his 
fine “ Médaille, qui fe vend cing fols chex 
Monneron, patenté”’ ftruck on the firft 
gra of the French revolution, in 1790. 
It may perhaps be objected that thefe 
improvements will cccafton additional 
expence, and confequent reduétion of 
the profits of circulation; but it is to be 
confidered, that even if lefs weight of 
copper were to be given in that form, the 
public would. ‘be no lofer; becaufe the 
pieces would be much leis liable to wear 
by friGtion, than when almoft the whole 
rough furface is expofed to continual rub- 
bing, as by the prefent ftyle of infipid 
bas relief. Among the beft provincial 
coins recently publithed, not a few are 
unhappily found deftitute of the dates of 
the years when they were iffued. Such 
is the defeét of moft of the pieces of 
Kempton, in Birmingham, bearing public 
buildings; on thofe of Skidmore, Hol- 
552 borin 















