THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

UNITED KINGDOM
issue of pieces in silver for three halfpence and three
farthings, the latter of which Shakespear, from its
excessive tenuity, compares, in King John, to a person
of very spare habit— "Look where three farthings
goes !
"—and finally by the establishment for the first
time in England of a colonial silver coinage, composed
of a crown, half-crown, shilling, and sixpence, in 1600,
for the use of the East India Company, and generally
designated the portcullis series. The only other instances
in which the country had connected its name with cur-
rency not intended for internal circulation were the
Anglo -Gallic money, definitely discontinued under
Henry VIII., and the daalders and their divisions
minted under the authority of the Earl of Leicester in
1586 and following years.
Many of the coins of Elizabeth bear dates recorded
in the customary manner, but the portcullis money of
1600 and 1601 exhibits only the last numeral. The
Queen is well known to have struck pence and half-
pence in copper for Ireland of various dates ; but what
appears to be a regal halfpenny in the same metal for
England exists, and is figured and fully described in
Sp'inlis Circular for December 1893.
With the advent of the Stuarts and the union of the
crowns the monetary system necessarily became more
complex and elaborate, and so it may be convenient
to offer a few introductory remarks on the independent
coinage of Scotland prior to the Union.
The earliest money of this division of the United
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