* Some few very early Danish coins are also preserved.

+ "Utuntur aut aere aut annulis ferreis, ad certurn pondus exaniinatis, pro nummo."-Caesar, ' De Bell. Gall.,' v, 12. The passage is, however, corrupt, and " Utuntur aut aere, aut nummo aereo, aut taleis ferreis, etc," is a more common reading. The coins were at any rate not gold or silver, according to Cicero, ' Ad. Fam.,' vii, 7; but, on the other hand, Strabo, in his 'Geographia,' and Tacitus, in his 'De Vita Agrieolae,' both assert gold and silver to be among the products of Britain.

* Ruding's 'Annals of the Coinage,' vol. i, pp. 50,117.

* The ordinance, as translated by Wilkins, runs, "Statuimus ut una moneta sit peromnem Regis ditionem, et nemo monetam cudat extra portam." - Wilkins, ' Leges Anglo-Saxonicse,' p. 59.

+ In the laws of Henry II (Wilkins, p. 320) we find under the year 1156, "Novam fecit monetam, quae sola recepta erat, and accepta in regno." It would seem from page 314 that the more powerful barons had hitherto issued coins of their own making.

% Thus, by a charter of King John, three moneyers were granted to Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his successors, in perpetuity, for the coinage of money in his see.-Wilkins, 'Leges Anglo-Sax.,' p. 355. But the Crown, while it resigned in these instances the profits of the minting, always retained the power of fixing the standard, denomination, and stamp of the coins. It may be remarked that the appointment of the clergy to important posts in the mint was for many centuries common in this country. Thus, in 1548, Bishop Latimer strongly protested against the custom:-"Well, well. Is this their duetie ? Is this their office ? Is this their calling ? Should We have ministers of the church to be comptrollers of the myntes ? Is this a mete office for a priest that hath cure of soules? Is this his charge ? I would here ask one question; I would fayne knowe who comptrolleth the deuill at home athis parishe, while he comptrolleth the mynt ?......but the saying is, that since priestes have been mynters, the money hath bene Worse than it was before." - 'Latimer's Sermons,' 1575, folio 16 b, cited Ruding, vol. i, pp. 313, 314.

§ According to Le Blanc ('Traite Historique des Monnoies de France,' p. 90) this charge was not exacted by the Roman Empire, which defrayed all the expenses of coinage. This author produces an ordinance of King Pepin to show that the right of seignorage existed in France at least as early as the year 755 a.d. It is conjectured by Lord Liverpool to have been of Gothic origin.

For some time previous to the Conquest silver pennies of a fixed quality and weight had been in general circulation in England. Their quality was the same as that of the present silver currency, the pound of 12 oz. being divided into 11 oz. 2 dwts. of fine silver and 18 dwts. of alloy, and silver coin in such proportions has always been known as "English Standard Silver." The system as regards weight was simple enough. The pound in tale of silver was equal to the pound weight* of standard. It was divided into 20 shillings, each of which contained 12 pennies or sterlings; a penny therefore weighed 1/240 of a pound, or exactly one pennyweight

Before noticing the several changes in the coinage which have taken place in England, it may be well to enumerate the three methods by which coins may be debased.+

First. - By diminishing the quantity or weight of the metal of a certain standard of which any coin of a given denomination is made.

Second. - By raising the nominal value of coins of a given weight and made of a metal of a certain standard; that is, by making them current or legal tender at a higher rate than that at which they passed before.

Third. - By lowering the standard or fineness of the metal of which coins of a given denomination and weight are made; that is, by diminishing the quantity of pure metal and increasing the quantity of alloy.

The first of these methods has usually been applied in the case of silver coins; the gold coinage has then generally been debased by an arbitrary elevation of its nominal value, in order to preserve the previous relation between the two metals. J

* The pound weight used at the Tower (the seat of the Royal Mint till 1810) was equal to 15/16 of the pound Troy, and was known as the "Tower Pound." It was also in use at Rochelle, and is hence termed the "Rochelle Pound " by French writers. An almost identical weight was employed by the Germans for weighing gold and silver. Its use at the Tower was interdicted by Henry VIII, and the Troy pound has since remained its substitute for minting purposes.

+ Lord Liverpool's ' Letter to George III on the Coins of the Realm,' p. 30.

+ It is a moot point how far the royal prerogative of debasing coin extends.

In the reign of Henry III gold coins were first issued from English mints, though the " byzant" of Constantinople and the Florentine " florence "* had previously circulated in England and throughout Europe. It is here necessary to say that a pound of gold has always been divided by English assayers into 24 parts, called carats, + each carat being subdivided into 4 parts, called carat grains. The "Gold Pennies"+ of Henry III were "24 carats fine," i. e., contained no alloy; they each weighed two sterlings, or the 1/120 part of the Tower Pound, and were valued at 20 sterlings or silver pennies. Thus fine gold was at this time (1257) estimated with regard to standard silver as 10 to 1, and fine gold as compared with fine silver was therefore as 9 1/4 to 1.

In 1344 Edward III changed the standard to 23 carats, 3 1/2 grs. fine and 1/2 a gr. of alloy. This is now called the old English standard, and continued unchanged till Henry VIII in 1526 struck coins of 22 carats fine and 2 of alloy, which were known as " crown" gold to distinguish them from the old coins, which still remained current under the name of "angel" gold.§ The old and