THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

TERMINOLOGY
and Edward VI. the triple one. Henry VIII. had the
sovereign = twenty shillings (1542-43, thirty - fourth
and thirty - fifth years), of a different type, and
existing in several varieties; it has an older portrait,
bearded. The earliest half-sovereigns of Edward VI.
have the name of his father and his own bust. (Comp.
Campen.) The three-pound piece or triple unit of
Charles I., struck at Oxford (Juxon's), 1643-44, in
several varieties, may be regarded as a triple sovereign.
A pattern is in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow.
The half-sovereign of 1821 was withdrawn because it
so closely resembled the sixpence, and the sixpence of
1887 was withdrawn because it so closely resembled the
half-sovereign. Yet in both cases the appearance and
weight are sufficiently different. Of the sovereign of
Queen Victoria, 1837, in which the bust is smaller,
there are four varieties ; that of 1838 occurs without
the roses, and with a knurled edge. There is no half-
sovereign of Victoria prior to 1839.
Species—A kind of currency, as distinguished from
banco and courant, established for commercial use in
Germany, Denmark, &c. The principle was well known
to the ancients, the Greeks having probably borrowed
it from the Lydians.
Spilegroschen — Small silver coins, which seem to
have been used in Saxony as far back as the sixteenth
century by card-players. (Compare Hazlitt, " Coins of
Europe," p. 235.)
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