ENGLISH COINS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 16 February 1880, Page 2

ENGLISH COINS.

« Our mode of reckoning by pounds, shillings, and pence, was (according to tbe Nineteenth Century) introduced in Sax^n tirqes, tbe £1 being a pound of silver, though the penny, tbe 1240 th cf £1 was the largest silver coin actually struck. The ' penny 'is the most ancient representative of our coinage. Tbe name first appears in the laws of Ina, King of the West Saxons, who began to reign in 688. The figure of Britannia on our present specimens was copied from a coin of Antoninus. The mark was originally Danish, but is said to have been introduced here by Alfred ; it contained at first 100, and afterwards 160 pennies. It was uerer struck, but was only a money of account. Throughout Norman times the halfpenny and farthing were, as a rule, not separate coins, but halves and quarters of tbe penny very neatly cut. Though some Saxon halfpence are known, these coins were not struck in «ny qunntity till the reign of Edward tbe First, Our gold coins recommenced under Henry tbe Third, who coined gold pieces intended to pass for twenty pence. Edward the Third struck gold florins, current for six shillings. This coin being found inconvenient, he issued the f noble,' sometimes ca'led tbe ' rose noble,' worth six shillings and eightpence, or half a mark. This, with its half and quarters, was our only gold coin till the ' angel ' of Edward the Fourth. Greats and half-groats were introduced by Edward tbe Third. They received their name from the French ' gros,' a large piece. It was one of tbe charge-! against Wolsey that he put his cardinal's hat on the money struck in the archiepiscopal mint at York. The 'hilling ' was first struck by Henry the Eighth. The silver crown, half-crown, and sixpence, commenced under Edward the Sixth. The sovereign of twenty shillings was first struck by Henry the Seventh. The guinea commenced under Charles the Second, in 1663, and was so railed from the Guinea gold from which it was made ; it was withdrawn in 1815, when the sovereign and halfsovereign were .again issued.