THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
the Webb sale in 1894 some silver pennies with Matilda
Regvna were withdrawn as spurious.
Rut among the antecedent collections numerous diffi-
culties beset the path of the collector, and it is perhaps
unnecessary to add that the most exacting figures are
asked for the poorest and rudest examples appertaining
to brief and obscure reigns. In this case, again, it is wiser
to be incomplete, so far as private collections go. The
British Museum catalogue of the English coins down
to the Conquest, the new Montagu catalogue, and Mr.
Grueber's account of the last find of rare Anglo-Saxon
pennies are our best guides.
In 1280 occurred a new coinage of pennies, half-
pence, and farthings, of which the lowest value hence-
forth continued to form a permanent feature in the
English currency. Under the Edwards mints again
grew more numerous, and the name of the moneyer
disappeared. Owing to the increase of trade the influx
of foreign money became larger, and various descrip-
tions of counterfeit coin are mentioned, and interdicted
by proclamation ; these pieces are cited by terms
chiefly corrupt and unintelligible. .
The
acceptance of
a medium of lower standard, which we conclude to
have come in principal measure from the Netherlands
and Luxemburg {Luxemburghs are noticed by Chaucer
in the Monk's Prologue), was obviously profitable
to experts, as the English penny was of fine silver
(24 to 23 and a fraction grains Tower) ; in the time
of Henry III. it was appointed to weigh 31 grains
of wheat. During upward of a century (1272-1377)
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