Ad Jutorem Meum

AD JUTOREM MEUM took the place of the mint legend; the stereotyped bust was replaced by an excellent profile portrait on the groat and the seated king on the penny: Henry VIII. de based the gold and reduced the weight of the sovereign, the reverse type of which was now the royal arms supported by a lion and dragon. He introduced the gold crown of 5s. and half-crown and raised the angel to 7s. 6d., introducing the George noble to take its old value of 6s. 8d.—so called from its type of St. George and Dragon (Pl. VI.-to). In 1544 he issued the base shilling or testoon of 12 pence and debased the silver coinage. It was in his reign that the archiepiscopal mints of Canterbury, York and Dur ham were abolished, the former having exercised its privilege for nearly eight centuries. When Edward VI. again restored a coinage of fine silver he introduced the silver crown of five shillings, which took the name of the gold piece of the same value introduced a few years earlier. The reign of Mary is notable for the appearance of her husband Philip II. of Spain on the shilling.

Elizabeth continued her father's denominations and restored the purity of the silver coinage. By introducing the sixpence and threepence of silver she gave the groat its deathblow, although it and the twopence continued to be struck. She also introduced coinage by machinery (mill and screw) although it was not really established until after the Restoration. James I. introduced a number of new gold coins, the most important being the "unite" or sovereign (205.), so called from its legend (Faciam eos in gentem unam) alluding to the union of the crowns. In his reign the number of denominations in use reached its maximum. Charles I. (Pl. VI.-11) made no changes in the coinage of the last years of his father, but the Civil War and the king's financial difficulties added many new coins to the English series. These were 20S. and los. pieces in silver and the large gold pieces, e.g., £3 pieces of Oxford and Shrewsbury, the fine Oxford silver crown by Rawlins with a view of Oxford behind the usual type of the king on horse back; the siege pieces rudely struck on pieces of silver plate at various Royalist strongholds show to what straits the king's party was reduced (P1. 'I.-I3). Under James I. and Charles I. we have the first English copper coins, the "Harrington" farthings ; they were not struck by the king but by contract. The coinage of the Commonwealth is remarkable for the simplicity of its types and this is the only period of English coinage when the legends have been in English (Pl. VI.-12). A series of coins were struck with Cromwell's bust and superscription but, although not uncommon, they never seem to have been put into currency (Pl. The modern coinage dates from the reign of Charles II. After issuing the old denomination of hammered money in the first two years of his reign, he replaced the unite or broad in 1662 by the guinea (Pl. VI.-15), so called from the provenance of its gold, still a 205. piece. It was not till 1717 after various oscillations that its value was fixed at 2IS. His silver coins were the crown, half crown, shilling, etc., all regularly and beautifully struck by Jan Roettier with the new mill which was then established at the mint. In 1672 he introduced the bronze halfpenny and farth ing with the Britannia type. The finest coin of his reign is not a regular issue. It was the "Petition" crown (Pl. IV.-i4) made by Thomas Simon, engraver at the mint under the Common wealth, and bears on the edge a petition to the king that he might be given the same office under the new regime. The coinage of

the i8th century calls for no remark; one may just mention the practice of recording the provenance of the metal of particular issues as in the VIGO issues of Anne struck from captured Spanish bullion in 1702, the Welsh Copper Company shillings of George I. and LIMA coinage of George II. made of bullion brought by Anson from his voyage round the world. Towards the end of the century the scarcity of government silver was largely made good by Spanish dollars, with or without a bust of George III. countermarked upon them, and by tokens issued by the Bank of England while the deficiency in copper was made up by the private issue of vast numbers of tokens. In 1816 the great re coinage took place with the introduction of the sovereign and silver coins each with Pistrucci's design, St. George and the Dragon. In 1848 in the reign of Queen Victoria the 2s. piece (florin) was issued and proved a most popular coin; the double florin which was first issued in 1887 did not take the public fancy and the practical disappearance of the crown piece also from circu lation reflects the public prejudice against large coins. The gold sovereign was last struck in 1917 but it had disappeared from currency in 1914 soon after the outbreak of war, after a career of three hundred years as sovereign, unite, guinea, and again sovereign.

Wales has never had a regular coinage but there exist two unique coins of Welsh kings, a penny of Howel Dda (c. 910-40) and another of Llewellyn (1075-79).

Scotland.

The coinage of Scotland followed similar lines to that of England as regards types and weights : the earliest coins are silver pennies (Pl. VI.-i6) resembling the contemporary coins of England. The silver coins are baser and of inferior work but the rarer gold coins present several remarkably fine pieces of workmanship (Pl. VI.-17) ; the Scots coinage decreased in quan tity after the union of the crowns in 1603 and ceased in 1709 after the union of the parliaments. The only extensive and varied coinage is that of Mary Queen of Scots.

Ireland.

Ireland had an extensive silver coinage in the loth century, mainly copies by Danish kings, Sihtric III. and his successors, of the Anglo-Saxon coinage. The Anglo-Irish coinage began in 1177 with pennies and halfpennies of John, the only coins to bear his name which does not occur on the English coins. The quality of the coinage became more and more debased, reach ing its final degradation under the Tudors. Gold was never struck by the government but copper was introduced quite early. The Civil War as in England produced a number of siege-pieces, notably the Inchiquin and Ormonde money. James II. in his campaign in Ireland issued vast numbers of gun-metal coins rang ing from the 2/6 downwards. These were to be cashed for silver when he regained the throne. They are unusual as bearing the date in months. Irish coinage under the British regime did not actually come to an end until the reign of George IV., the last issue being in 1822. In 1928 coinage by the Irish Free State was introduced.

We may note that the Isle of Man had its own coinage from 1709 under the Earls of Derby to 1864 under Victoria and that the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey have had their own bronze coinage for over a century