_Omission of the Words DEI GRATIA from the new Florin._
Ruding, in his _Annals of the Coinage_, iv. 9., furnishes a precedent
for the omission of the words DEI GRATIA from the coinage, in the case
of the Irish half-pence and farthings coined at the Tower in 1736-7. And
he supplies, also, a precedent for the dissatisfaction with which their
omission from the new florin has been received, in the shape of two
epigrams written at that time, for which he is indebted (as what writer
upon any point of English literature and history is not) to Sylvanus
Urban. The first (from the _Gentlemen's Magazine_ for June, 1837) is as
follows:--
"No Christian kings that I can find,
However match'd or odd,
Excepting ours have ever coin'd
Without the _grace of God_.
"By this acknowledgment they show
The mighty King of Kings,
As him from whom their riches flow,
From whom their grandeur springs.
"Come, then, Urania, aid my pen,
The latent cause assign,--
All other kings are mortal men,
But GEORGE, 'tis plain, 's divine."