The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

62 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.
much in value from all the rest of the base testoons, that
they could not without great inconvenience to the realm,
by reason of the number of counterfeiters, bear any convenient
or like value as the others did ; and therefore it
was commanded that the testoons with such marks should
from that time be taken as current at twopence farthing
and no more, being as much as they were proved to con-
tain in value." (Ruding, vol. i. p. 333.)
Now, allowing that we have nothing on the surface of
this Proclamation to prove that these were other than
English coins, yet below the surface lies a fact which
must not be missed, for its bearing on the case is direct.
Three out of four of the testoons so named, so culled from
the rest on account of their being " base and full of
copper,'' actually bear, as mint marks, the very marks
impressed upon unquestioned Irish money of the preceding
reign. The " harp " was borne on Henry VIII.'s seventh
coinage (1544 45); the " lis " and the "rose "upon
his sixth. Writing of that coinage (Numismatic Chronicle,
N.S. Ixxv. p. 170), Dr. Aquilla Smith says, " The fleur-de-
lis and rose mint marks, which occur on his English
money, now first appear on his Irish coins." I suppose
they appeared then first, because through Henry's
assumption of the regal title, J]IBaRRia EGCX, then first
had Ireland become a part of the Kingdom, in a sense it
had not been before ; so the " rose " and " lis " marks,
which hitherto had been English only, might now be used
also for Ireland. 6
6
In the "Silver Coins of England" it is said that the
testoons marked with the "rose" were coined at Durham
House, in the Strand. Those marked with the " lion "
appear
to be the rarest. Indeed it is stated in Ruding ii. (vol. p. 874)
they have never occurred. Upon this I would observe that at