mered money; but there are likewise half-crowns, shillings, and sixpences of 1651, bearing the same stamp, and grained upon the outer edge; which is the earliest English completely milled silver coinage, the milled money of Elizabeth and Charles I. being only marked upon the flat edge. One milled half-crown of the same date has inscribed upon the rim the words, In the third year of Freedom by God's Blessing Restored; another has Truth and Peace. 1651. Petrus Blondaeus Inventor Fecit. These appear to be rival productions; the former by the regular moneyers of the Tower; the latter by a French artist, Peter Blondeau, who came over and offered his services to the committee of the council of state for the Mint in 1649, but never was employed farther than to give this specimen of his skill, although he appears to have remained in the country about three years, and was probably not well used by the government. Some copper farthings, of various impressions, were likewise coined by the parliament.
The earliest money bearing the effigies of Oliver Cromwell has the date of 1656, though it was not till the following year that he formally took upon him the royal authority in conformity with the "Petition and Advice." His coins are twenty shillings and fifty shillings pieces of gold; and crowns, half-crowns, shillings, and sixpences of silver. "They are," says Leake, "an excellent die, done by the masterly hand of Symonds (or Simon), exceeding anything of that kind that had been done since the Romans; and in like manner he appears thereon, his bust Cæsar-like, laureate, looking to the right, with whiskers, and a small tuft upon the under lip." The circumscription around the head of the Protector is Olivar. D. G. R. P. Ang. Sco. Hib. &c. Pro. On the reverse, under a royal crown, is a shield, bearing in the first and fourth quarters St. George's cross, in the second St. Andrew's cross, and in the third a harp; with the Protector's paternal arms, namely, a lion rampant, on an escutcheon in the centre; and the circumscription Pax Quaeritur Bello, with the date 1656, or 1658.
