[Addison, in commenting on the Usefulness of Ancient Medals, says,
"A series of an Emperor's Coins is his life digested into Annals."
Who shall, therefore, gainsay the the utility of _A Numismatic Manual,
or Guide to the Study of Coins_. The author, Mr. John Y. Akerman,
does not intend his volume exclusively for the use of the experienced
medallist, so that much popular interest may be expected in its pages.
The title bespeaks its contents, but we quote a few brief extracts
relating to rare English coins.]
_Ecclesiastic Money_.--This money was coined by prelates prior to
the Norman Conquest. Of these there are pennies of Jænbearht,
archbishop of Canterbury, with the reverse of Offa, king of Mercia,
Aethileard, Wulfred, Ceolnoth, Plegmund, and Ethered. They are all
extremely rare, excepting those of Ceolnoth, which are not so rare as
the others. Besides these there are pennies of St. Martin, coined at
Lincoln, and St. Peter's pennies, struck at York, which are supposed to
be as old as the time of the Heptarchy. Those of St. Edmund, coined at
Bury, are prior to the Norman Conquest. The pennies of St. Paul are, it
would seem, by the cross and pellets on the reverse, not older than the
reign of Henry III.
All Stephen's money is very scarce, and one or two types are exceedingly
rare. At a sale in London, in 1827, the penny of Stephen with the
horseman's mace, brought thirteen pounds. His coins are generally very
rude and illegible. This king coined pennies only.
The groat of Edward I. is of the first rarity.[10] The pennies of
Hadleigh, Chester, and Kingston, are scarce; the other pennies are
extremely common, and scarcely a year passes without a discovery of new
hoards. The half-pennies and farthings are somewhat scarce. From this
time to the reign of Henry VII., the English coins bear a great
resemblance to each other.
_Edward IV_.--The groats common, except those of Norwich and
Coventry, spelled "Norwic" and "Covetre." The half-groat and halfpenny
scarce, the penny and farthing rare. The Bristol penny is extremely
rare.
_Richard III_.--All this king's coins are very rare, except the
groat, which is less rare than the others, some groats having lately
been discovered. The Canterbury-penny of Richard III. CIVITAS CANTOR,
supposed _unique_, sold at a public sale a short time since, for
seven pounds ten shillings. The Durham penny of the same king brought
four guineas.
_Henry VII_.--Folkes, in his _Table of English Silver Coins_,
after describing the various pieces coined by Henry VII., says, "We may
further in this place take notice of a very uncommon and singular coin,
charged with the royal arms, but without a name. The arms are surmounted
with an arched crown, and placed between a _fleur-de-lis_ and a
rose, legend DOMINE-SALVVM. FAC. REGEM; on the other side is
_fleur-de-lis_ and a lion of England, and an arched crown between
them above, and a rose below, with this inscription, MANA. TECKEL.
PHARES. 1494. An English lion also for a mint mark. It is, by the make
and size, a French gross, and is supposed to have been coined by the
Duchess of Burgundy, for Perkin Warbeck, when he set out to invade
England." There are also half-groats of this coinage, with the same
date, one of which brought _twenty guineas_ at a sale in London in
1827.
_Milled Money_.--The artist first employed on the milled money of
England was a Frenchman, named Philip Mestrelle, who was executed at
Tyburn, on the 27th of January, 1569, having been found guilty of making
counterfeit money.
_Charles I_.--The obsidional, or _siege pieces_, struck by the partizans
of this monarch during the civil wars, are extremely interesting, and,
with the exception of those coined at Newark, are all rare. They may be
known by their shape from every other English coin, as well as by their
legends. Those of Newark are of a diamond or lozenge form, some are
octangular, and others of a shape that would puzzle a geometrician. Some
have the rude representation of a castle; others, a crown; and many have
the initials, C.R., and the legend DVM. SPIRO. SPERO.
_Oliver Cromwell_.--The coins of Oliver were the production of the
inimitable Simon, whose works are to this day admired and prized. Some
have doubted whether they ever were in circulation, but it is now pretty
generally allowed that they were.
_Charles II_.--The milled money of this king is of a very different
style, and has the head laureated. All the pieces of this coinage are
common. To the eternal disgrace of Charles, he encouraged an artist whom
he had brought over from Antwerp, and gave the preference to his works
before those of Simon, who produced in the year 1663, a pattern crown of
most extraordinary workmanship, _on the edge of which_ was the
following petition in two lines:
"THOMAS SIMON _most humbly prays your_ MAJESTY _to compare this his
tryal-piece with the Dutch, and if more truly drawn and embossed, more
gracefully ordered, and more accurately engraven, to relieve him_."
To any one but the heartless profligate whose portrait occupied the
obverse of the medal, this appeal would have been irresistible, but it
does not appear that the unfortunate artist was relieved. He probably
died of grief and disappointment at the unjust preference shown to his
rival.
_James II_.--The base money struck by James the Second, in Ireland,
in 1689 and 1690, is common, except the crown of white metal, with the
figure of James on horseback. Some of his half-crowns and shillings were
struck of metal, the produce of old cannon, which were melted down for
the purpose, and are in consequence termed "gun money."
_Anne's Farthing_.--The common current farthing of Anne is scarce,
but scarcer with the broad rim. The patterns of 1713 and 1714 are rare,
but those with the reverse of Britannia under a kind of arch, or with
Peace in a car drawn by two horses, and the legend PAX MISSA PER ORBEM,
are the scarcest of all.
At a public sale of the coins of the late Mr. Dimsdale, the banker,
the Oxford crown with the city under the horse, was knocked down at
sixty-nine pounds. At the same time the rial of Mary brought sixty-three
pounds, and the rial of Elizabeth twenty-one pounds ten shillings.
A friend of the author is of opinion, that the coins of Henry VII.,
with the head _in profile_, are the first English money bearing a
likeness of the sovereign.
[The work is illustrated with, several lithographic _fac similia_
of coins; and the vignette is from a very beautiful gold coin of Hiero
II. of Syracuse, in the possession of Mr. Till, of Great Russell-street,
Covent-garden. This morsel of antiquity, not larger than one's little
finger nail, must be upwards of _two thousand_ years old!]
[10] The groat of Edward I. sold for five and a half guineas, at a
public sale in London, in March, 1827. It is quite evident
that the effigies of the English monarchs on their coins are not
_likenesses_, until the time of Henry VIII. whatever the
Ingenious may say to the contrary. Some have supposed that the
rude figures on the Saxon coins use likenesses, but the idea
is ridiculous. Folkes, in his "Table of English Silver Coins,"
remarks that the Kings of England are represented _bearded_ on
their great seals, but always _smooth-faced_ on their coins.
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