The coins of the commonwealth exhibit a shield with the cross of St. George sur rounded by a palm and olive branch, and have for legend "the commonwealth of Eng land." On the reverse are two shields accollee, with the cross of St. George and the harp of Ireland, and the motto " God with us." Coins far superior in character were executed by Cromwell, with his laureated bust and title as protector, and on the reverse a crowned shield quartering the cross of St. George, of St. Andrew and the harp, with the protector's paternal arms in surtout; but few of these were issued. In the early coins of Charles IL, that "monarch in the dress of .the time; in his later money he is in conventionalized Roman drapery, with the head to the left, and from that time it has been the practice to turn every king's head the reverse way from that of his predecessor. The four shields on the reverse are disposed is the form of a •cross (au arrangement which continued till the reign of George II.), and on the edge of the crowns and half-crowns is the legend " Decus et tutamen." Charles II. issued a copper coinage of half-pennies and farthings; on the former appears the device of Britannia, taken from the Roman coins relating to Britain. Pennies were not coined till George M.'s reign. The coins.of William and Mary have the profiles of the king and queen one over the other, and the shields of the three kingdoms in the form of a cross on the reverse,. with Nassau in the center. The coinage of William alone, after the death of Mary, is of somewhat improved design, sir Isaac Newton being then mas ter of the mint. Little change in the general design of the coin occurs in the reigns of Anne and George I. Ou the accession of the house of Hanover, the Hanoverian arms are placed in the fourth shield, and George IV. substituted a quartered shield with Nassau en surtout for the four shields on the reverse of his gold coins. During the greater part of George III.'s reign the coinage was utterly neglected, and the silver pieces in circulation were worn perfectly smooth. When coins were at last issued, the Roman conventionalism of the previous reigns gave way to a now fashionable Greek conventionalism. The quartered shield supplanted the four shields, and on the reverse of the crown appeared a Grecianized St. George and the dragon. George IV.'s bust is taken from Chantrey's statue; the rose, thistle, and shamrock, united under a crown, appear on.the reverse of his shilling. Silver groats were issued in the reign of iam IV. The ensigns of Hanover disappeared at the beginning of the present reign; the reverse of the shilling is even poorer than that of 'George IV., the words " One shilling" occupy the field, surrounded by an oak branch and a laurel branch; silver pieces of three pence have been introduced. But the principal monetary event is the issue of the silver florin, iu value equivalent to two shillings, looked on as a step towards the institution of a decimal coinage. It represents the head of the queen crowned, with the legend in old English character, and for reverse the four shields are once more placed in the form of a cross.
No native Scottish coinage existed earlier than the 11th century. Coins are extant of Somerled, prince of the Isles of that century, and of Alexander I. of the century following. The silver pennies of William the lion, and Alexander II. and III., are like contemporary English money, but ruder, and bear the names of the moneyers and place of mintage, generally Edinburgh, Perth, or Berwick. The profiles on the coins of John Baliol, Robert Bruce, and David II. are attempts at portraiture. A remarkable gold piece, first coined by Robert II., is the St. Andrew, with the arms of Scot land on the obverse, and St. Andrew on his cross on the reverse. In the four suc ceeding reigns the weight of the silver coins rapidly decreased, and coins of billon, or base /metal, were issued, nominally pennies, but three and a half of which eventually passed for a silver penny. The evil increased, and baser and baser alloy was used:
Groats of billon, known as placks and half-planks, were coined by James III. James IV.'s coins have a characteristic portrait, and a good deal of artistic feeling. James III. and IV. issued well executed gold pieces, called unicorns and riders, the type of the one being the unicorn, of the other the king on horseback. A still more beautiful coin was the gold bonnet piece of James V., so called from the cap in the king's portrait. Of Mary there are. a great variety of interesting piecea. The portrait is sometimes crowned, sometimes uncrowned; and on the coin issued soon after Francis's death, has a widow's cap and high-frilled dress. The types in James VI.'s reign are also very= various. On his accession to the English throne, the relative value of English and Scottish coins was declared to be as 1'2., to 1. The coins afterwards issued from the Scottish mint differed from the English, chiefly in having Scotland in the first quarter in the royal shield. The last Scottish gold coinage consisted of pistoles and hall-pistoles of Darien gold, about the size of a guinea and half-guinea, struck by William III. ; the pistole distinguished by a rising sun under the bust of the King.
The coina,ge of Ireland is scanty and uninteresting compared with that of Scotland. The coins of English monarchs struck in Dublin resemble much those current in Eng land. Henry VIII. first placed a harp on the Irish coins.
In France, the earliest coins are those of the Merovingian kings, rude imitations of the late Roman and early Byzantine money, and mostly oegold. Under the Carlovingian dynasty, deniers and °boles are the prevailing coinage, remarkably rude in fabric with out portrait, and bearing the name of the king and place of mintage. Some coins of Charlemagne, struck at Rome, are of better workmanship. They contain one letter of "Roma" at each extremity of the cross, with the legend " Carolus IP." The coinage improved under the Capetian kings; the fleur-de-lis appears in addition to the cross. In the 13th c. gold pieces were issued, and in the time of Philip VI. both the design and the execution of the coins are beautiful. The coins of Louis XII. are the first that bear the royal portrait.- The modern coinage may be said to begin under Henry II., whose portrait is good. The seignorial coins of France in the middle ages are of con siderable importance, and the medals of Louis XIV. and Napoleon I. are much more interesting than the modern coins.
The mediaeval coinage of Italy is of great interest. The money of the Lombard kings of Italy and BenCgento, is little inferior to of the•Greek emperors. There i5 a beautiful _Series _of.gold and silver to Venice, bearing the names of.
the doges, and having generally for type the doge receiving. the gonfalon, or standard of St. Mark. • The gold florins of Florence, with the lily for device, are no less celebrated, sad were imitated by other states. Florence had also a remarkable series of medals, with admirable portraits of persons of note. • The coins of the popes, from Hadrian I. down to the 14th c., bear the name of the pope and emperor of the west; those of later date are beautiful in execution, and have seated portraits of the pontiffs, with the cross keys and miter for reverse. A remarkable series of medals commemorates the chief events of each reign, one of which, struck after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, has for type an angel slaying the Huguenots, and the inscription " Ugonottorum strages." The coins of the Normau princes of Naples struck in Sicily, have the legends partly or wholly in Arabic. Malta has a series, with the arms and effigies of the grand-masters.