tetradrachm [SHEKEL]; and there were half and quarter shekels. Hebrew coins pretending to an earlier date than the Maccabees are

Those of copper being found of different sizes, are distinguished into first, second, and third brass; in historical importance as well as for the devices, the largest series is to be preferred. The largest imperial brass coin was the sestertius, and from the Augustan age went by the name of nummus, or æreus. It was worth twopence English. All the large brass coins are of yellow metal; the middle brass, yellow and red; the small, mostly red. No sensible dimunition of the sestertius took place till the reign of Alexander Severus, when it lost upwards of a sixth of its weight, and continued to diminish till the reign of Gallienus, when it totally vanished. In this reign the chief copper coins in use were the small brass, or asaria, which, according to the writers of the Lower Empire, were at last numbered at sixty to the silver denarius. Under Valerian and Gallienus, copper washed with silver appeared. In the reign of Diocletian, a coin denominated the follis supplied the place of the sestertius; but the denarii ærei continued quite common down to Constantine I. He introduced a new coinage, and then the follis had its changes and its subdivisions; but its appellation adhered to what had now become the largest brass coin of the Roman empire, to the very latest notices which we have of the Byzantine money. From the time of Augustus to that of Gallienus, the imperial or silver denarius contained sixteen asaria. Under Caracalla a larger denarius was struck, which had a half more or twentyfour asaria, and was called argenteus: the common denarius of silver being then termed minutus. Under Gallienus, however, the minutus ceased, and the argentius and denarius then became only different names for the Roman silver coin, which at that time contained no less than sixty asaria. Constantine I. introduced the milliarensis, worth somewhere about a shilling of our money: but the argentei, or denarii, were struck as late as the reign of Heraclius. Aurei and semi-aurei were the sole pieces in gold for near three centuries. Till Sulla's time the aureus continued at thirty silver denarii. In the reign of Claudius, and afterwards, it went for twenty-five silver denarii. Under Philip, aurei of two or three sizes first appear, of a rude fabric; one class of which were called trientes. The weight originally given to the aureus was 120 grains; it afterwards fluctuated to between 80 and 90 grains, and was sometimes even of less weight. Constantine I. accommodated the aureus to his new coinage, and gave it the name of solidus, of six in the ounce of gold. The solidus passed for fourteen milliarenses. It went for rather more than twelve shillings of our money, and continued of the same standard to the very close of the Byzantine empire. The medallions were struck both at Rome and in the provinces, whence the division of this class into Roman and Grecian. The term is applied to all those productions of the Roman mint which exceeded the coins ordinarily current in size, whether in gold, silver, or brass. Medallions, says Pinkerton, from the time of Julius to that of Hadrian are very uncommmon and of vast price: from Hadrian to the close of the Western Empire they are less rare. The types of the Roman medallions are often repeated upon common coin. Those struck in the Grecian territories are the most numerous, and are distinguished from the Roman by their thinness and inferiority of workmanship. Many Roman medallions have s. c. upon them, as being struck by the senate; other have not, as being struck by order of the emperor. The Roman medals called Contorniati, it is the opinion of our first medallists, were no more than tickets of admission for different places at the public games. The third class of ancient coins, denominated Barbarian, consists of those of Lydia, Persia, Judæa, Phoenicia, Numidia and Mauritania, Carthage, Spain, Gaul, and Britain. The coins of Lydia and Persia have been already slightly noticed. The Darics, from their present extreme scarcity, are supposed to have been melted down for his own coinage by Alexander the Great, upon his conquest of Persia. Pinkerton asserts that all the real Darics were of gold, and that the silver coins with the archer (the same type) are later. Nevertheless many of the silver Darics are equally if not more archaic in appearance. Of Persian coins there is a second series, that of the Sassanidæ, beginning about A.D. 210, when Artaxerxes overturned the Parthian monarchy; they extend to the year 636, when Persia was conquered by the Arabian caliphs. The Hebrew coins were struck under the doininion of the family of the Maccabees, and chiefly in the time of Simon the highpriest, about the year 150 B.C. They are nearly all of copper, and

spurious. The Phoenician coins are in no instance considered older than the time of Alexander the Great, and are chiefly referred to the cities of Tyre and Sidon. The Numidian coins are those of Juba I. and II. The Punic and Carthaginian coins are believed to have been struck by Greek artists. Those of Spain agree in character with the coins of the different nations by whom the several colonies of that country were planted, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians; and many of them are inscribed with Phoenician, Greek, and Roman legends: a few others are met with, distinguished by what are called Celtiberian characters, not unlike the letters of the Runic and Etruscan alphabets. of the coins of Gaul, the most ancient have no legends at all; they have very rude devices, and many of them are in base gold; after the Gauls had intercourse with the Romans, some of their coins bear inscriptions which look like Latin, mostly in single words, and not of easy interpretation; they are not unlike many of those which are called early British. Cæsar describes the Britons as a people just emerging from barbarism, and no further acquainted with commerce than to have discovered that it could not be conducted by simple barter alone. His account implies, that however they might have known its use, the Britons had not proceeded so far as actually to coin money; although they had a substitute for it in pieces of brass, or iron rings, or plates regulated by weight. He says, "Utuntur aut ære, aut annulis ferreis, ad certum pondus examinatis, pro nummo." ('Bell. Gall.' v. 12.) The passage, however is corrupt; for annulis some manuscripts read taleis, and others laminis. Coins however are found in this country which are usually attributed to the very early British kings, in gold, silver, and the inferior metals; ruder in fabric than they would have been had the Britons learned the art of coining them from the Romans. They are without legends, and many of them, like the early Gaulish coins already mentioned, have unintelligible devices; they seem to justify our antiquaries in thinking that Cæsar had not use of a better sort of money was unquestionably taught the Britons sufficient information to make his testimony quite conclusive. The by the Romans very soon after Caesar's second invasion, when the types improved, and when no one who examines them carefully will doubt that Roman artists were employed upon the dies. The earliest coin which can, with the least appearance of probability, be attributed to any particular British monarch, bears upon it the letters SEGO, possibly for Segonax, one of the four Kentish monarchs who attacked Cæsar's camp at the time of the invasion we have just mentioned; it has also the word TASCIO upon it, which is seen upon numerous other coins which are undeniably British. Cunobelin was a later monarch of Britain, whose name is considered to be abbreviated upon the coins which have CVN, CVNO, and CVNOBELI upon them, together with the words CAMV and CAMVL, the leading letters of Camulodunum, his capital city, supposed to be either Colchester or Maldon in Essex. VER, as well as VERLAMIO at length, for Verulam, occur upon other coins of the same period. One has BODVO, which may or may not be a coin of Bonduca or Boadicea, queen of the Iceni. It is probable that

Coin of Cunobelin.

the British coinage closed with the money of Cunobelin; for in a very few years after his decease the second subjection of Britain took place under Claudius, and was so complete and severe, that the country became rather a Roman than a British island. Gildas (De Excidio Britanniæ,' c. v.) expressly speaks of a Roman edict which ordained that from that time all money current among the Britons should bear the imperial stamp. That this prohibition was followed up by the establishment of Roman mints in Britain is highly probable; and certain initial letters, as P. LON. for pecunia Londini, &c., are brought forward as evidence of the fact; but most of these initials are equally

coins of Carausius and Allectus, the seat of whose empire was in Britain, have a strong claim to be considered as the production of British mints. Those who wish to see under one view the 'Coins of the Romans relating to Britain,' will find the fullest information in a little volume published under that title by Mr. John Yonge Akerman, 12mo., London, 1844; much information will also be found respecting the Roman coins found in various parts of London, in Mr. Roach Smith's Illustrations of Roman London,' 4to, 1859. MODERN COINS are those which have been struck since the fall of the Western Empire; but it is impossible, in the space to which the present article is necessarily confined, to enter into minute details respecting the series of coins in each country. We shall be brief in our notices of the greater part, that we may devote a larger space to the coins of England.

doms 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), Egbert, Coenvulf, Ciolvulf I., Beornwulf, Ludican, Wiglaf, Berhtulf, Burgred, and Ciolvulf II., with whose short reign the kingdom expired. The coins of the East Angles 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 Ethelweard, 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 Anglo-Saxons. The earliest specimen hitherto known is of the reign of Egfrith, 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 Ethelred his son 840, of Redulf, and of Osbert, 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 9th 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 of 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 Hardicnut are rare. English coins of Canute have frequently, and of Hardicnut in a few instances, been found in Denmark. Numerous coins of Canute and Ethelred II. have also been found in Ireland.

The series of the coins of Italy under the Ostrogoths began soon after the year 480 of the Christian era. The French series commences with Clovis, A. D. 490. That of Spain with Liuva, Prince of the Visigoths, soon after the middle of the 6th century, or about A.D. 567. The states of Germany appear to have struck money very shortly after the age of Charlemagne; as well as the independent Lombard cities, and the Neapolitans. The Papal series of money begins with Pope Hadrian I., A.D. 772. Denmark has coins of an early date, but few of them are intelligible before the time of Canute; contemporary with whose date are the coins of the petty kings of Ireland. In Sweden coinage is said to have begun under Biorno, A.D. 818; and in Norway with Olave or Olaf, A.D. 1066. The Russian coinage is of a later date than the other coinages of Europe. Of Scotland pennies exist ascribed to Alexander I., A.D. 1107: those of William the Lion, A.D. 1165, are numerous. Pennies were the earliest coins in most of the European kingdoms, and a prevailing device upon them was a The Coins of England form the most complete modern series extant. At what time the circulation of the Roman money ceased, we are ignorant but Sceatte (from the Anglo-Saxon rceat, shot, money) are known of the early kings of Kent, some of which must have been struck within the 6th century; and there are others so similar to them in type as to justify their appropriation to the same people, but which from their symbols were evidently coined before their conversion to Christianity. They are too rude generally to admit of description, are of silver, and found of different weights, from seven grains and a half troy to twenty and upwards: their most common weight is from fifteen to nineteen grains. Several plates of these coins are engraved in Ruding; they appear to have been current chiefly from the year 500 to 700. A sceatta of Ethelbert I. of Kent is the earliest Saxon coin which can be appropriated: he reigned from A.D. 561 to 616. Sceattæ also are the only coins which have hitherto been discovered of Egbert, king of Kent, who reigned from 665 to 674. In point of antiquity the

cross.

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 'Archæologia,' 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 I.'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 halfpence 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

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 helplinge or halfpenize, and the fourth part or peopdung, 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 Ethelbert 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 king

historians 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 I.; 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 I. 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 IOHANNES 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 were 221 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 Eliz. 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 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 proat, was issued for circulation by William IV., in 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 rcilling 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 halfcrown, 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 Museum, bearing the date of 1599. Charles I. struck twenty-shilling 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, with the exception of the florin of two shillings and the fourpenny piece. It is worthy of remark, that, during all his distresses, 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 twentypence. 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 quarterflorin 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 408. 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 68. 8d. In 1546 he struck sovereigns of the former value of 20s., and half-sovereigns in proportion. Henry VIIIth'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 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.

a

With the exception of the styca, the copper coinage of England arose 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 authorised 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. In 1852, half-farthings were coined, chiefly for use in the colonies; and in the parliamentary session of 1859, the chancellor of the exchequer announced the intention to change the copper coinage for one of a mixed and harder metal, of which the weight of each coin would be about half its present weight. Neither the denominations nor the value were to be changed.

Our space will allow us to say less than we could wish upon the money struck in France by English princes. Of Anglo-Gallie silver coins we have deniers of Eleanor, wife of Henry II., as duchess of Aquitaine, with deniers and half-deniers of Henry II., and pennies and half-pennies of Aquitaine, and pence of Poitou and Rouen of Richard I. Of John and Henry III. we know of no Anglo-French money; but there is a lion of billon of Edward I., coined during the lifetime of his father after he had received Gascony, and a plentiful series of silver and billon coins of Edward III., of Edward the Black Prince, of Richard II., Henry IV., V., and VÍ. The denominations of the silver were the hardi, double hardi, groat, half-groat, penny, and half-penny. In this class also fall the Calais groats and half-groats of the sovereigns of England, from Edward III. to Henry VI., and the Tournay groats of Henry VIII. Edward III. was the first of the English princes who struck gold money in France; the denominations were guiennois, leopard, chaise, and mouton; to these Edward the Black Prince added

rind of the nut is soaked in water for several months, then beaten upon a stone with a piece of heavy wood, and afterwards rubbed with the hand until the intermediate substance is completely separated from the fibrous portion. The rind of forty average nuts supplies about six pounds weight of the fibre. This fibre constitutes the coire, which is then ready for use in the same way as hemp or other fibrous materials. This material possesses great tenacity. Indeed, Dr. Roxburgh remarks, that "coire is certainly the very best material yet known for cables, on account of its great elasticity and strength." The material is very buoyant, and well suited for making ropes of large diameter. Until chain-cables were introduced, all the ships which navigated the Indian seas had cables made of this substance. The fibres are rather improved than injured by immersion in sea-water; but the smoothness and elasticity of the coire-cordage, though very advantageous to running-rigging and the light lines of a ship, render it less fitted for standing-rigging.

3 feet thick. The internal height was about 4 feet, the floor being flat, bedded upon a thick stratum of concrete, and the roof in the form of a flat dome. In the front of each oven was an opening about 3 feet square, covered by a cast-iron door lined with fire-bricks, which slid up and down by means of chains and counter-weights. At the back of the roof was an opening, capable of being wholly or partially closed by a sliding damper communicating with a horizontal flue which conducted the smoke to a high chimney serving for the whole range of ovens. The ovens were charged through the front opening with about three tons and a half of coals, upon the top of which a little straw was thrown. The oven being very hot from its preceding charge, smoke began immediately to rise from the mass, while the straw became ignited by radiation from the dome. By the active combustion thus excited on the surface of the coal the greater part of the smoke was consumed, all that arose from the half-ignited coals having to rise through the fullykindled coals on the surface, which were freely exposed to the access of air, both the furnace door and the flue being for a time left fully open. As the operation proceeded, the fire burned regularly downwards, and the doors and dampers were gradually closed. After a calcination of upwards of forty hours the doors and dampers were perfectly closed, by which means the mass was partially cooled, and formed itself into prismatic concretions, somewhat resembling columnar basalt; when sufficiently cooled the furnace was opened, and the mass of coke broken up with iron bars and thrown out upon the pavement to be extinguished by sprinkling water over it. When the coking is and soot escapes, and the coals, if good, yield about 80 per cent. of compact glistening coke, weighing about 14 cwt. per chaldron. The more recent operations of the railway companies have led to the introduction of many improved processes in coke-making. In ordinary coking-ovens the loss in weight is about 25, instead of 20 per cent., but the bulk of the coal is increased about 25 per cent. by the process. The production of coke in the manufacture of coal-gas is noticed under GAS-LIGHTING.

The quantity of coire now imported is large, but it cannot be quite determined from the Board of Trade returns, in which it is included with "jute, and other vegetable substances of the nature of hemp."

COKE, the solid residue obtained by the destructive distillation of coal. It consists almost entirely of carbon, associated with a certain quantity, usually small, of incombustible mineral matter, which is left behind as ash when the coke is burnt.

As an article of commerce, it is produced by partial combustion in close chambers, or in heaps from which the free access of air is excluded. Being composed almost entirely of carbonaceous matter, coke is a fuel much purer and better adapted for use in smelting and various other furnaces than raw or uncoked coal; and as it is divested of those constituent parts which produce most dark-coloured smoke, it is especially preferred in cases in which it is necessary to avoid the emission of smoke, as for the furnaces of locomotive engines. The introduction of railways has occasioned a very large demand for coke for this purpose, though its use in the manufacture of iron has been diminished in some degree by the adoption of the hot-blast for furnaces, by the aid of which uncoked coal may be used in lieu of coke.

The simplest mode of coking, which is still occasionally followed, is to lay the coal in large flattened heaps, often containing 30 or 40 tons "each, in the open air, covering it with ashes and earth to confine the heat, so that the mass of coal may be slowly burnt in a smothered manner, men being employed during the process to renew the covering wherever the fire may begin to burn through too fiercely. The late Dr. Ure, in describing various modes of making coke in Germany, noticed both circular and oblong coking meilers or mounds of this character, the former being piled round a central chimney built of loose bricks, towards which small horizontal flues are laid among the lumps of coal forming the mound; while in the latter vertical flues or chimneys are provided by the insertion, while the mounds are forming, of wooden stakes, which, when the whole pile is completed, are withdrawn, their place being filled up with readily combustible materials, to aid in igniting the mass of coal. The exterior of these meilers is covered with slack, or coal-dust, and clay.

The best and most economical method of making coke is in close ovens, which are built in various forms. In some large establishments these ovens are a hundred or more in number, each being a brick structure eight or ten feet high, with a flat roof in which is an opening for introducing the coal, and with another opening in front from which to remove the coke. The ovens being placed side by side in a continuous range, a railway is laid along their flat roofs by which the coal is brought close to the charging-holes, while another, running on a lower level, in front of the openings by which the coke is taken out, affords facilities for its removal. Dr. Ure gave details of various forms of coke-ovens, of which we can only notice the very excellent kind adopted by the London and North-Western (at that time the London and Birmingham) Railway Company for making coke at the Camden-Town station, for the use of their locomotive engines. Each of these ovens was, internally, of an elliptic form, measuring 12 feet by 11 in the clear, and surrounded by brick-work

In 1854 the London and North Western Railway company requested Messrs. Woods and Marshall to institute a series of experiments, to determine whether coal could advantageously be used in substitution of, or in combination with, coke in locomotive engines. The experi ments were made with Hawksbury coal, dug from a pit near Coventry; it was selected on account of the proximity of the pit to the railway, and also because the coal is hard, and possessed of other favourable qualities. The main coal could be supplied in large lumps at the Rugby depôt for 98. 8d. per ton. Some of Mr. M'Connell's locomotives were tried, alternately with Hawksbury main coal and with the best coke. Under nearly equal circumstances in other respects, a consumption of 25 lbs. of coke was found to equal that of 35 lbs. of coal, in working effect; and 8 lbs. of water were evaporated by 1 lb. of coke, against 5 lb. by 1 lb. of coal. In trials with various engines, drawing various loads, the comparative results were nearly as above, in some cases more favourable to the coke. The result of the experi ments showed that the use of coal in locomotives is quite practicable; that the engines, with coal fuel, have no difficulty in maintaining the required speed and pressure of steam; that the consumption, or rather non-production, of smoke may be very nearly attained; but that the last-named advantage depends very much on the skill and attention of the men employed, there being a necessity for a much more frequent supply, and for smaller quantities at each firing. Taking the results of one particular locomotive as an example, it was found that 1 ton of coke did about as much work as 14 tons of coal; but as the price of a ton of the latter was 9s. 8d., and that of the other 218., the money-cost for a given amount of power produced was less in the coal to the extent of nearly 78. per ton. The experimenters found, however, that the company possessed only a small number of one particular kind of engine suitable for burning coal without producing smoke; and it would become, therefore, a commercial question how far it would be worth while to build new engines for the sake of ensuring these advantages.

There has long been, and still is, a controversy among practical men, not only concerning the relative qualities of coke and coal for use in locomotives, but in furnaces generally. At Pellatt's glass-works, near Blackfriars' Bridge, coke has been found to possess better qualities than coal for heating the kilns: 13 cwt. of coke was found to produce as much heating effect as 20 cwt. of coal. It has been found that, if a little coal be mixed with a preponderant quantity of coke, the glass ingredients become refined many hours earlier, the effects are more certain, there is less injury to the melting-pots, there is much less emission of smoke, and there is less cost by 24 per cent. than when coal alone is used. The best coke is found to be obtainable from Newcastle coal, the next best from Wigan, a third quality from Barnsley, and a quality nearly as good as breeze from cannel coal. The sooner coke is used after making, especially if gas-coke, the better. It has been laid down by some inanufacturers, that whenever a chaldron of coke is sold at a lower price than a ton of small coal, it is cheaper to use coke than coal. Many manufacturing establishments now mix coke largely with their coal, thereby greatly lessening the emission of smoke; but in the North, where coal is cheaper, and .where smokeprevention is little thought of, coke is not much used in steam-engine furnaces. Many persons object to the use of gas coke, on account of