wark are of a diamond or lozenge form, some are
octangular, and others of a shape that would puzzle a geometrician. Some
have the rude representation of a castle; others, a crown; and many have
the initials, C.R., and the legend DVM. SPIRO. SPERO.

_Oliver Cromwell_.--The coins of Oliver were the production of the
inimitable Simon, whose works are to this day admired and prized. Some
have doubted whether they ever were in circulation, but it is now pretty
generally allowed that they were.

_Charles II_.--The milled money of this king is of a very different
style, and has the head laureated. All the pieces of this coinage are
common. To the eternal disgrace of Charles, he encouraged an artist whom
he had brought over from Antwerp, and gave the preference to his works
before those of Simon, who produced in the year 1663, a pattern crown of
most extraordinary workmanship, _on the edge of which_ was the
following petition in two lines:

"THOMAS SIMON _most humbly prays your_ MAJESTY _to compare this his
tryal-piece with the Dutch, and if more truly drawn and embossed, more
gracefully ordered, and more accurately engraven, to relieve him_."

To any one but the heartless profligate whose portrait occupied the
obverse of the medal, this appeal would have been irresistible, but it
does not appear that the unfortunate artist was relieved. He probably
died of grief and disappointment at the unjust preference shown to his
rival.

_James II_.--The base money struck by James the Second, in Ireland,
in 1689 and 1690, is common, except the crown of white metal, with the
figure of James on horseback. Some of his half-crowns and shillings were
struck of metal, the produce of old cannon, which were melted down for
the purpose, and are in consequence termed "gun money."

_Anne's Farthing_.--The common current farthing of Anne is scarce,
but scarcer with the broad rim. The patterns of 1713 and 1714 are rare,
but those with the reverse of Britannia under a kind of arch, or with
Peace in a car drawn by two horses, and the legend PAX MISSA PER ORBEM,
are the scarcest of all.

At a public sale of the coins of the late Mr. Dimsdale, the banker,
the Oxford crown with the city under the horse, was knocked down at
sixty-nine pounds. At the same time the rial of Mary brought sixty-three
pounds, and the rial of Elizabeth twenty-one pounds ten shillings.

A friend of the author is of opinion, that the coins of Henry VII.,
with the he