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coins which have hitherto been discovered of Ecghbert, king of Kent, who reigned from 665 to 674. In point of antiquity the penny succeeds; the name of which first appears in the laws of Ina, king of the West Saxons, who began his reign in 688. The word has had numerous etymologies; but that from pendo, to weigh, seems the most reasonable: it was then, as it still is, the 240th part of the nummary pound. The half of the penny, called helflinge or halfpfenige, and the fourth part or feorthung, farthing, are mentioned in the Saxon gospels; and a Saxon halfpenny of Edward the Elder is said to exist in the Bodleian collection at Oxford: but we know little more of the earliest divisions of the penny. The coin ascribed as a penny to Ethilberht II. king of Kent, between 749 and 760, with Romulus and Remus on the reverse, is beyond doubt a forgery. As to the rest of the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, no coins have yet been discovered of the South Saxon monarchs. Of the West Saxon kings, we have coins of Athelheard, A. D. 726; and of Beorhtric, who came to the throne in 784. Mercia seems to have been the most wealthy kingdom, and has a large series. It begins with Eadvald, who ascended the throne in 716, followed by Offa (whose queen Cenethreth or Quindred also enjoyed the privilege of coining,) Egeberht, Coenvulf, Ciolvulf I., Beornwulf, Ludican, Wiglaf, Berhtulf, Burgred, and Ciolvulf II., with whose short reign the kingdom expired. The coins of the East Angels begin with Beonna, about the year 690; but in consequence of the temporary annexation of the kingdom to that of Mercia, we have but few coins of succeeding monarchs; those only of Aethelweard, 760, Edmund the Martyr, 855, and Ethelstan, 860, are known. The kingdom of Northumberland has this remarkable peculiarity belonging to its coinage, that from its mints issued, as far as is yet discovered, the only brass coins which were struck by the AngloSaxons. The earliest specimen hitherto known is of the reign of Ecgfrith, who ascended the throne in 670: it differs from the stycas of succeeding monarchs in the omission of the moneyer's name on the reverse. Of sixteen succeeding monarchs (whose reigns occupy more than a hundred and thirty years,) no coins have as yet occurred. The first that appears was struck by Eanred, who began to reign in the year 808. One silver penny of Eanred is known. His stycas are of various rude types, without any representation of the monarch, but with a legend similar to that on his silver coin, excepting that the moneyer's name stands on the reverse, without any addition. Other stycas occur of Ethereld his son 840, of Redulf, and of Osbercht, whose reign began in 849. After his reign stycas seem to have fallen into disuse, at least none of a later period have yet been found. Stycas were also struck in the Saxon times by the archbishops of York: Ruding has engraved those of the archbishops Eanbald II., Vigmund, and Wulphere. One coin of Regnald, who was expelled the kingdom of Northumberland in 944, is known; and one of Anlaf, which has upon its reverse the Danish raven: these are pennies. Pennies also are known of Eric. At the beginning of the ninth century Ecgbeorht or Egbert, ascended the throne of the West Saxon kingdom; and in the course of his long reign brought under his dominion nearly the whole of the Heptarchic states: he is therefore, commonly considered as the first sole monarch

of England, notwithstanding those states were not completely united in one sovereignty until the reign of Edgar. On his coins he is usually styled ECGBEORHT REX, and sometimes the word SAXONVM is added in a monogram within the inner circle of the obverse: some of his coins have a rude representation of his head, and some are without it. From Egbert's time, with very few exceptions, the series of English pennies is complete; indeed for many hundred years the penny was the chief coin in circulation. Of the Saxon pennies those of Alfred bear a considerable price; on some he is called AELBRED REX, on others ELFRed. Edward the Elder has Saxon buildings on the reverses of several of his coins; and on one Athelstan's is a building intended for York Cathedral. The coins of Canute and of Edward the Confessor are among the most common of the Saxon series: those of Harthacnut are rare. English coins of Canute have frequently, and of Harthacnut in a few instances, been found in Denmark. Numerous coins of Canute and Ethelreld II. have also been found in Ireland.

The archbishops of Canterbury, during a part of the Anglo-Saxon period, also coined money. Pennies exist of Jaenberht, archbishop of Canterbury, from 763 to 790; of Ethilheard, who died in 803; of Vulfred, who succeeded in that year; of Ceolnoth, who died in 870; of Ethered, 871; and of Plegmund, who sat from 891 to 923. In Athelstan's laws two moneyers are allowed to the archbishop of Canterbury, but no archiepiscopal coins of that reign are known, nor indeed any until the time of archbishop Bourchier, a space of several hundred years. Of Harold II.'s pennies there are three distinct types; two with the head looking to the left; the third, which is of very uncommon occurrence, with the head to the right; all have the word PAX in the centre of the reverse. Of the coins of William I. and II. the best account, with engravings of all the types, will be found in the 'Archaeologia,' vol. xxvi. p. 1-25. Of the types there exhibited, those which bear the strongest resemblance to the coins of the Confessor and Harold are ascribed with great probability to the first William; those which most resemble Henry I.'s coins to William II. The coins which present a sceptre on each side of the king's head, are universally ascribed to the Conqueror: those with two stars to William Rufus, the same ornament occurring upon his Great Seal. Most of them read PILLEM, PILEMV, or PILLEMVS REX A, AN, ANGLO, or ANGLOR; the P in Pillem being in reality the Saxon V (W.) Of Henry 1.'s pennies, the types are as various as upon those of any monarch of the English series: the reverses bear the name of the mint and moneyer. This had been the Saxon practice, and it continued till the reign of Edward I. Our historians say that Henry I. coined halfpence and farthings; but none such are known in our cabinets. Through the Norman times, and certainly in the reign of Edward the Confessor, halves and quarters of the penny, regularly and nicely cut, to go as half pence and farthings, occur almost whenever parcels of the coins of those periods are discovered. The troubles of Stephen's reign will account for the wretched state in which the pennies of that king occur: these, with what are certainly the earliest pennies of Henry II., are among the worst of the English coins in point of mintage. The barons of this reign are reputed by our his

torians to have struck coins; but only two or three such are known, and those of persons related to the king. Pennies are extant ascribed to Robert, earl of Gloucester, bastard son of Henry 1.; to Henry, bishop of Winchester, base brother of Stephen; and to Eustace, Stephen's son. They are all of great rarity, as is the coin which bears the full length effigies of Stephen and Henry II. The coin of Robert however is by some ascribed to Robert duke of Normandy, the eldest son of the Conqueror. Henry II., according to Ruding, had but one type; but there seems every reason to believe that the pennies which usually go by the name of the first coinage of King Henry III., are in reality the last coinage of Henry II. at the time he reformed his money, A. D. 1180. Of Richard 1. and John, we have no English money; but pence, halfpence, and farthings are extant of John, all struck in Ireland. Those coins with a full face, bounded by the inner circle, have the inscription 10HANNES DOM. and were struck at the time his father made him lord of Ireland; those which give the face inclosed in a triangle, and IOHANNES REX, were coined after he ascended the throne. The farthing of this last coinage is extremely rare. Of John's coins, Dublin appears to have been the only place of mintage. Henry III.'s pennies (if those which we have considered as the latest pennies of Henry II. really do not belong to Henry III.) have usually the numerals added to his name, HENRICVS REX III. Some of his pennies have HENRICVS REX TERCI, and a few HENRICVS REX ANG. His coinage, if we may judge from the quantity of his pennies which still remain, must have been a very extensive one. Halfpence and farthings are spoken of in a record of this reign, but none have appeared. The pennies of Edward I. II., and III, are usually thus distinguished by our antiquaries: those which give the king's name EDW. are ascribed to Edward I.; those with EDWA., EDWAR., and EDWARD, to Edward II.; those with EDWARDVS to King Edward III. A few with EDW. are known certainly to belong to Edward I., particularly those which have a moneyer's name on the reverse, ROBERT DE HADELEIE, who is known from records to have been a moneyer in 1280. Both Henry III. and Edward I. struck pennies in Ireland, in the manner of John's later coins, representing the king's head within a triangle. Edward I. struck halfpence and farthings in his great coinage of 1279, which are not unfrequently met with in the cabinets of collectors, as well as halfpence and farthings with the Irish type, struck at Dublin and Waterford. It may be sufficient, as regards these small coins, to say that they continued in currency for several centuries. The last silver farthing is known to have been coined in the reign of Edward VI., but no specimen of it has been seen the last silver halfpenny was struck under the Commonwealth. The penny has continued through every reign to the present. Our limits will not allow of further minute description. Among the rarest in the later part of the series may be reckoned the pennies of Edward VI., Mary, and Philip and Mary. From the reign of Edward I. to Henry VIII., we have pennies which bear the privy marks of the bishops of Durham; from Henry IV. to Henry VIII., we have coins struck in the archiepiscopal mint at York; and others of the see of Canterbury, from archbishop Bourchier to archbishop Cranmer. The first English pennies weigh 22 grains

troy. Towards the close of Edward III. the penny weighs 18 grains, and in the reign of Edward IV. it fell to 12, after previously sinking to 15. In Edward VI.'s time, 1551, the penny was reduced to 8 grains, and after the 43rd of Elizabeth to 7 grains, at which weight it still continues. The penny affords the best rule for estimating the other silver coins.

According to Grafton, Henry III., in 1249, ordered groats to be stamped, but none such are mentioned in any record. There is a large piece however found occasionally in the cabinets of the curious, sometimes ascribed to Edward I., but whether his, or Edward II.'s, or Edward III.'s, is uncertain. It occurs of different weights, from 80 to 138 grains, and represents the king's head on its obverse, within a double tressure of four arches, with mullets and roses; inscribed EDWARDVS DI. GR. REX. ANGL. The reverse, besides a continuation of the king's titles in the outer circle, has civI. LONDONIA within an inner one. There can be little doubt but that it was a trial-piece. Groats and half-groats were not introduced for currency till the 25th Edward III., and continue at present, though not for circulation. A silver fourpenny piece for circulation, of a different type from the ordinary groat, has been issued for circulation by King William IV., A. D. 1836. The groat received its name from the French gros, a large piece. In the time of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. groats and half-groats were struck in the archiepiscopal mints of Canterbury and York. It was one of the charges against Wolsey, that he had put the cardinal's hat upon the king's money, as is seen upon his York groats and half-groats.

The testoon, or shilling, was first coined by Henry VII., in 1503. The appellation of testoon was from the teste or tête, the head of the king upon it: that of shilling is of old but uncertain origin. Pinkerton says, that coins of that name had been struck at Hamburg in 1407. The scilling was a denomination of money in the Saxon times.

Henry VIII. struck some patterns for a silver crown; but the first crown for currency was struck by Edward VI., with the half-crown, sixpence, and threepence. Queen Elizabeth, in 1558, coined three-halfpenny, and in 1561 three farthing pieces. Pinkerton says they were dropped in 1582, but there is a three-halfpenny piece in the cabinets of the British Musuem, bearing the date of 1599. Charles I. struck twentyshilling and ten-shilling pieces in silver, but they were of very limited

currency.

From the 43rd Elizabeth, 1601, the denominations, weight, and fineness of English silver have remained the same. It is worthy of remark, that, during all his distresses, King Charles I. never debased his coin. The gold coinage of England is next to the silver in point of antiquity. The gold current with us, till the 41st Henry III., was foreign. In that year, 1257, a manuscript chronicle, in the archives of the city of London, states that the king made a penny of the finest gold, which weighed two sterlings, and willed that it should be current for twenty-pence. Three specimens of it only are yet known to have reached us; and two out of the three are preserved in the British Museum. They are from different dies. This coin is engraved in Snelling's View of the Gold Coin,' in the last edition of Folkes's Tables,' and in Pinkerton's Essay on Medals.' It is from Edward III. that the series of English gold coin

really commences, for no more occurs till 1344, when that prince struck florins. The half and quarter florin were struck at the same time. The florin was then to go for six shillings, though now it would be intrinsically worth nineteen. This coin being inconvenient, as forming no aliquot part of larger ideal denominations, seems to have been withdrawn. None have yet been found, but a few quarter-florins are preserved in cabinets, and one half-florin is known. In consequence, in the same year, the noble was published, of 6s. 8d. value, forming half a mark, then the most general ideal form of money. The obverse represents the king standing in a vessel, asserting the dominion of the sea. The noble was also attended by its half and quarter. This coin, sometimes called the rose noble, together with its divisions, continued the only gold coin, till the angels of Edward IV., 1465, stamped with the angel Michael and the dragon, and the angelets or half-angels were substituted in their place. Henry V. is said to have diminished the noble, still making it go for its former value. Henry VI. restored it to its size, and caused it to pass for 10s., under the new name of ryal. The ryal of 10s. and the angel of 6s. 8d., with their divisions of half and quarter, then continued the sole gold coins till, in 1485, Henry VII. issued the double ryal, or sovereign, of 20s., accompanied by the double sovereign of 40s. Henry VIII., in 1527, added to the gold denominations the crown and half-crown, at their present value, and in the same year gave sovereigns of 22s. 6d., ryals of 11s. 3d., angels of 7s. 6d., and nobles at their old value of 6s. 8d. In 1546 he struck sovereigns of the former value of 20s., and half sovereigns in proportion. Henry VIII.th's gold, like his silver coin, was in the latter part of his reign much debased. Edward VI. coined a treble sovereign; and under James I. the sovereign was called a unite. The former coins however continued, with a few variations, till Charles II. coined the guinea, so called from the Guinea gold, out of which it was first struck in 1663, when it was proclaimed to go for 20s., but by tacit and universal consent never went for less than 21s. Charles II. likewise issued half guineas, double guineas, and five guinea pieces, which his successors, till King George IV., continued. George I. and George III. issued quarter guineas; and George III. pieces of seven shillings in 1797. In 1815 sovereigns and half-sovereigns, of 20s. and 10s. each, were again coined, and the guinea and half-guinea were gradually withdrawn from circulation.

With the exception of the styca, the copper coinage of England arose a thousand years later than its silver. Queen Elizabeth had a great aversion to copper money, although the necessities of her people for small change were obvious. She suffered a pattern to be struck as the PLEDGE. OF. A. HALF PENNY, and James I. and Charles I. actually issued farthing tokens also as pledges; but no authorized coinage of copper was struck till 1672, when halfpence and farthings of that metal were

first made public money. In 1684 tin farthings were coined, with a stud of copper in the centre. Others, as well as halfpence of the same metal, were struck by James II., and William and Mary. In 1693, the tin was called in, and copper renewed. Pieces of a penny and twopence in copper were coined in the reign of George III. The latter did not answer their purpose, and were soon discontinued. The penny pieces remain in circulation.

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