silver, all the usual pieces, from crowns down to pennies. On both the gold and silver money are the heads of their majesties in profile, both looking to the left, the queen's half-covered by the king's, which is outermost. Some tin halfpence and farthings were coined in 1690; but, being frequently counterfeited, they were replaced by a copper coinage of these descriptions of money in 1694. We have already given an account of the calling in of the old silver money, and its recoinage, in 1696. Each of the new coins has immediately under the king's head the initial letter of the name of the town where it was struck. The Scotch coins of William and Mary have their heads turned to the right. Their only Irish coins are half-pence and farthings, of copper, brass, and pewter. The escutcheon in the centre of the royal arms on the money of this reign is that of Nassau.
The gold and silver money of Anne consists of the same pieces as that of her predecessor. She likewise coined a few copper halfpence and farthings, the latter dated in 1713 and 1714, and now very rare. "Upon the Union of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland," says Leake, "the arms being altered, the same was observed upon all the money coined afterwards; the arms of England and Scotland being impaled in the first and bottom shields, France in the sinister, and Ireland in the dexter, according to this left-handed rotation, which, however irregular and absurd, has prevailed ever since the first milled money."[1] For some time after the Union a mint was kept up at Edinburgh, at which silver money was coined of the same stamp with that coined in London, but distinguished by an E, for Edinburgh, under the queen's head.
The coins of Geo. I. are remarkable as being the first on which the letters f. d. (for Fidei Defensor) appear. They have also his majesty's electoral titles on the reverse; and in the arms Ireland is placed on the bottom shield, and in the dexter (where those of Ireland used to be) are the arms of his majesty's German dominions. In this reign, in the year 1717, on the representation of the
- ↑ Historical Account of English Money, p. 405.
