Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

MONEY.

29

alloy. The proclamation was contradicted by this provision of the
indenture for the new coinage. Before her marriage with Philip of
Spain, she coined groats, half-groats, and pennies, the weight was in
proportion to 8 grains to the penny, but the base pieces weighed 12
grains. Upon some of the groats she is represented in profile, to
the left crowned, and wearing a cross suspended to her necklace.
She is styled, MARIA D. G. ANG. FRANc. ET HIB. ItEGI,, and a pomegranite after her name serves as the mint mark. On the reverse is a
shield and cross fleure, with the words VERITAS TEMPORIS FILIA, a
pomegranite being placed after the first word. This motto, with the
device of Time drawing truth out of a pit, was adopted by the persuasion of her Popish Clergy, in allusion to her endeavours to restore the
Papal superstitions (as if they constituted the truth), which had been
in a great degree suppressed by her predecessor Edward VI. (Hawkins,
p. 144). In the first year after her marriage, the new coins exhibited
the busts of Mary and Philip, face to face, with their titles.
Elizabeth, 1558-1603, on her accession found the existing coinage
in an unsatisfactory condition, and she had both the ability and the
will to attempt to restore the silver money in relation to gold which
it held in the time of her grandfather. On 27 September, 1560, a
proclamation was issued, by which the base coins were ordered to be
reduced to their true value as near as they might be. The shilling
or testoon, which Edward VI. had reduced to sixpence, was now
reduced to fourpence-halfpenny, excepting the very base testoons,
which differed so much in value from the rest of the base testoons,
that they should be taken only at their true value. But for the relief
of such persons as held them, her Majesty was pleased to give pieces
of good sterling money of fine silver, at the rate of 21d. for each
testoon of twelve pence, and for every pound weight of them, three
pence over of good money.
The coinage of the first three years' of her reign contained 11 oz.
of pure silver and 1 oz. of alloy, but in her second year she restored
the standard to its original fineness of 11 oz. 2 dwts. pure silver and
18 dwts. alloy, and in that state it has continued to the present time.
Queen Elizabeth ordained the pound weight of Crown gold to be
coined into ~33 by tale, and the pound of the old standard gold
1 Hitherto coins were struck with the hammer only, but in 1561, the third
year of Elizabeth, a new process of coining was introduced by means of the mill
and screw, but it did not come into use at the mint until 1662, when letters and
grainings were first made on the edges of coins. The coins made by this process
were called milled money. They are similar in type to the hammered money,
but more neatly executed, rounder in form, and have their edges grained. It is a
curious fact, that the hammered money should also have been coined at the same
time, for a period of about fifteen years. It is well known that machinery.
which is worked by a constant force, can always produce a greater mechanical
effect in a given time than the arm of a man, which, from several causes, is:subject to variation, whereas the former, besides a greater mechanical effect,
always works with more accuracy. Not only in the act of coinage, but in all
the useful arts, the extensive employment of machinery has been one of the
chief causes of the superiority of the people of the British Isles. By means of
their machinery, effects scarcely credible have been, and still are, constantly produced in every department of the arts. These effects have been mainly dependent on the abundant and constant supply of cheap coal, cheap iron, and cheap
labour. If any one of these essential elements should fail, the natural effect will
be the decline of England's superiority, and the mechanical arts will migrate to
other countries where the necessary conditions for their success are available.