THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

UNITED KINGDOM
subjects and by the Universities. The crown of 1644
and the twenty-shilling piece of fine work seem to
have been equally from the hands of Thomas Rawlins,
engraver, dramatist, and poet. Mr. Richardson's speci-
men brought ,£90 in 1895. The royal farthing was again
struck, and is still sufficiently common. Of the normal
coinage outside that of necessity the chief sources were
the Tower, York, Bristol, and Aberystwith; the pro-
ducts of the last mint are distinguished by the Prince
of Wales 1
feathers.
The Commonwealth and Protectorate (1649-58)
represent a highly striking and memorable epoch ;
but
the types employed by the Government both before and
after Cromwell's assumption of supreme power were
remarkably simple, and in fact monotonous, since a
single specimen of either coinage practically answers for
the rest. The peculiar allocation of the shields on the
republican series, perhaps copied from the Anglo-Gallic
salute, angelot, or blanque, procured for these pieces
the nickname of Breeches, which, it was said at the
time, was a fit name for the coins of the Rump. The
sole novelty in the Protectoral money was the fifty-
shilling piece in gold, unless we are to include the so-
called two-shillings and the ninepence in silver, and
certain essays in copper (1649-51), which were never
issued, but possess an historical interest in presenting
the likeness of Cromwell and the Protectoral title some
time prior to 1653, as if the matter had been thus early
in debate. There are scarce patterns by Blondeau and
179