The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal ... - IndianCoins.org

PALMER'S GREEN HOARD. 83would suggest that when the new money was firstissued no addition was thought necessary to thoseplaces then exercising the right of coinage. When,however, the output of coins was evidently not sufficientlygreat to bring a return of the loan to the Earl of Cornwallhe increased their number. That would be at thetime that the word TSRCU' was inserted after theKing's name. This policy was further marked in connexionwith the issue of the next class, that havingnumerals after the King's name (RQX III);but later, forreasons at present unascertained, the mints were againreduced to their original number, that as is, they stoodat the end of the short-cross issue. As we have nooutside evidence we can only argue this point fromthe coins themselves.Though we possess no documents which directly referto these changes in the legends, we have some importantevidence in the Appendix to the Chronicle of John deOxenede as to when Class II. came to an end andClass III. was instituted. An account is there given ofthe trial of the pix, which took place in the 32nd yearof Henry, on Wednesday the next before the Feast ofSt. Gregory (i.e. March 12, 1248). The trial was madeof the old money as well as of the new. There werepresent at this ceremony the Mayor of London, MichaelTovy, and the two sheriffs, Nicholas Bat and WilliamVyel, and many others, including 13 goldsmiths(aurifabri). The King was also present and the Earlof Cornwall, William de Haverhill, the King's treasurer,and William Hardel, who at that time was warden of theexchange of London and Canterbury. The extendedoffice of the last, as we have seen, did not take place untila few weeks later. The new money was pronounced toG 2