THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

UNITED KINGDOM
tannia on the reverse said to represent the features of
the Duchess of Richmond, " La Belle Stewart. 11
One of
the farthings of 1665, with a bust of the king resembling
that on the Petition crown, bears the proud legend,
Quotum Maria Vindico, when England could not even
hold the Thames against the Dutch. A tin farthing of
later date with a copper plug reads Nvmmorvm Famvlvs.
An interesting adjunct to the gold money of this and
later reigns is the elephant and castle, the mark of the
Africa Company, whose exportation of the precious ore
from Guinea gave the now familiar name to the coins
struck from it.
The most remarkable features in the numismatic
annals of the Restoration and of the short-lived rale
of James II. were due, as in the case of Charles L,
to abnormal circumstances ; we allude to the famous
Petition and Reddite crowns, arising from differences and
jealousies among the rival engravers of the time, and to
the gun-money of James, fabricated out of a variety of
material at short intervals during his final struggle
for the crown in Ireland during the years 1689 and
1690, and consisting of the crown, half-crown, shilling,
and sixpence. Some specimens occur in silver, white
metal, and even gold ;
but these may be later re-strikes
from the original dies. The ordinary Irish copper
and English pewter money of James is rare in fine
state.
William and Mary, and William alone after 1695,
preserved substantially without change the English or
British coinage as it existed under the former Stuarts
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