THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
the gold sword-and-sceptre piece of 1604; thencefor-
ward we have only to deal with the coinage of Great
Britain, Ireland, and the British colonies or dependen-
cies. The coinage of the Stuarts was sumptuous and
lavish. James retained most of the types of his prede-
cessor with the necessary modifications, and introduced
others, namely, the unit, the laurel, and the fifteen-
shilling piece (a substitute for the spur - ryal, and
the obverse copied from a Bavarian kipperthaler of
1621). The unit and laurel were only variants of the
twenty-shilling piece. The silver coinage corresponded
with that of Elizabeth, except that on the crown and
half-crown the king appears on horseback. Farthings
of copper were also struck under a grant made to John,
Lord Harington of Exton, and there are pattern half-
farthings of similar origin. The rare pieces in the
James series are the rose-ryal with the plain back to
the throne, the spur-ryal, the fifteen-shilling piece,
and the silver half-crown of the E.rurgxit type. The
crown is difficult to procure in thoroughly fine state.
The principal numismatic features of the subsequent
reign are due to the Civil War, prior to which the
coinage was a virtual reproduction of that of the first
Stuart. To the period of the troubles (1642-46) are
to be referred the Oxford crown of 1644 ; the twenty-
shilling, ten-shilling, and five-shilling pieces of the
Declaration type ; the £3 piece in gold, of which there
are varieties and in the Hunterian Museum a pattern
and the interesting series of siege-money, largely coined
from plate presented to Charles for the purpose bv his
ITS
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