neck, thus recording that that city was taken in that year. (Plate II, fig. 4.) This idea, of making the currency medals of record as well as money of commercial value, however, was not further acted on.

Complaints had been repeatedly made about the losses sustained by changing the Scotch currency into English; wherefore, in 1707, coins of English denomination were struck at Edinburgh and bear E under the profile; these were made of the Scottish coins which had been returned to the mint, though some were issued of Scottish value. In 1708, however, these last were called in, and coins of English value only issued, bearing E* under the bust. This was the last gold or silver issue coined away from London.

The silver and gold coins of this reign were so much alike that shillings were gilded and passed off as sovereigns.

No copper coins were issued; pattern farthings exist and bring high prices, though the more plentiful are sometimes erroneously sold as the scarcer.

Her Majesty had rejected a pattern guinea because the shoulder was bare, and she was so modest that all her coins bear her bust draped.

Queen Anne died in 1714 and was succeeded by George I, whose coinage, save a quarter-guinea which was issued for the first time, was the same as his predecessor's. The legend, however, has his German titles added, reading thus-Georgius D. G. M. BR. FR. ET HIB. REX. F. D.-BRVN. ET L. DVX. S. R. I. A. TH. ET EL. Georgius Dei Gratia Magnæ Britanniæ Franciæ et Hiberniæ Rex, Fidei Defensor-Brunsvicensis et Lunenburgensis Dux Sacri Romani Imperii Archi Thesaurarius et Elector.-Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg and Arch-Treasurer and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.

Defender of the Faith (F.D.) appears now for the first time on legal coin, though these initials had been used on the Great Seal ever since the title had been conferred on Henry VIII

before mentioned on some (Plate II, fig. 5.)

by Pope Leo X, and appeared as of the siege-pieces of Charles II. George I was succeeded by his The currency was the same, excepting that no quarter-guineas were issued.

son George II in 1727.

The mill and screw had been considered an effectual barrier to clipping—and so they were; but thieves will steal, and they had found out a method of filing off the edges, and then re-milling with a file-therefore the milling of this reign was altered from perpendicular to a slant or cable-twist.

1733. The old hammered coins, angels &c., of James I, Charles I and Charles II, which still remained in circulation under the term "broad pieces," were now finally forbidden by enactment.

George III succeeded his grandfather in 1760. The currency remained the same; but by this time the coins of former reigns had become so flat from circulation, that it was difficult to say whether a piece of money shown was English or foreign there being no rim to protect the impression, the latter bore all the friction and so the marks of the die soon disappeared.

Lord Liverpool in a letter to the King estimated the depreciation on the shilling to have been one-sixth.

1761. Quarter-guineas again coined.

1770. Seven-shilling pieces were among the list to be issued, but this coin does not appear to have been proclaimed current till 1797.

Still the clamour was rife against the inferior currency. Such a difference was there that, as new guineas were issued, they were exchanged or bought up for the defaced and depreciated, till at length the Government took into consideration the best means of preventing this evil. Lord North proposed that all the old coin be recalled, and for the future the gold currency should be regulated by weight as

well as by tale, which was approved of by the King: the idea found a place in his Majesty's speech at the opening of Parliament; a debate ensued; and at length certain weights were allowed for depreciation, below which the gold coin was not to be legal tender.

1786. The sovereignty of the Isle of Man was purchased, and copper coins issued bearing his Majesty's profile.

1784. The Anglesey penny was issued, and was the first of that immense series of tradesmen's copper tokens which were justified by the paucity of the legal copper currency, against which there had been complaints year after year without effect. These tokens form a collection of themselves, and they range from 1784 till the great authorized issue, in 1797, of the copper coinage struck by Bolton of Soho, Birmingham, which currency contained copper penny and twopenny pieces for the first time in our coinage; the twopenny piece being found too cumbersome was never again issued.

But this appearance of tokens did not remedy the condition of the silver and gold coins. The clamour increasedforgeries were detected- the allowance for prosecuting offenders had to be increased-dollar tokens were issued by the Bank of England. People were summoned for refusing the coin of the realm, and riots broke out in different places.

The authorities only replied by issuing new coins in driblets, and debating on the weight and fineness of a new issue-till at length, in 1817, the grand new coinage appeared; and, so that the public might get them fresh and untarnished, some of the pieces were given out from the Bank of England in silver paper. This issue contained the sovereign" at 20s. once more. The guinea, which had given so much trouble and had ranged from 20s. to 30s., had been previously fixed at 21s., and now it with its parts ceased to be struck.

Upon the new coinage being ready, the old was declared to

be taken at its nominal value, by all the branches of the Revenue.

The currency then appearing for the first time is still in circulation and requires no description; but one alteration is worthy of note. The claim to the monarchy of France, which had uninterruptedly been persisted in by the English crown ever since the time of Edward III, so far as the inscription on the coins and Great Seal and quarterings on the armorial bearings were concerned, now disappears from all three; but it is curious that, though the arms of his Majesty's German dominions remain on the quarterings, having been introduced by George I, the initials of his dignities appertaining thereto, introduced at the same time, are now no longer to be found on his English coins; and the engraver's name again appears on the money, not in the old style in a garter on the reverse, but neatly and beautifully engraved on the fall of the neck, below the neck, or on the shield.

1825. During the reign of George IV the Irish and English coins were declared henceforth to pass for the same value in each country.

William IV succeeded his brother George IV, and during the reign of the former (in 1836,) the groat having been discontinued from Charles I's reign till this date, was once more issued, and is still current as a "fourpenny bit."

The points of interest worthy of note during the present reign are the ceasing to coin crowns in 1847 and half-crowns in 1851, though in 1847 W. Wyon executed what is considered to be the most chaste and beautiful design since Simon's celebrated petition crown. It is Gothic, having the Sovereign's bust once more draped in her robes, and on the reverse the royal arms on four shields, with the star of the order of the garter in the centre. (Plate I, fig. 4.) This coin, however, a crown piece, (of which two thousand were struck,) was