d dies for striking and
stamping coin, under the direction and superintendence of one Colonel
Smith, who was appointed Master of the Mint.

[G] NOTE 1.--"In the year 1684 Charles the Second is said to have issued
tin coinage; had he made it a legal tender in 1646, when it was
plentiful and precious as an article of barter, the speculation might
have proved profitable."

"Chevalier goes on to state that the money herein coined consisted
chiefly of pieces resembling English half-crowns, which passed current
at thirty sous each. The obverse of these pieces, called St. Georges,
was stamped with an effigy of the king on horseback holding a drawn
sword in his hand; and the reverse impressed with roses and harps,
proper to the royal arms, interlaced with fillets, crosses, and other
devices. Some shillings were likewise coined, and besides these a small
number of Jacobuses, said to be worth twenty shillings apiece."--_Hoskins_,
Vol. I., page 416.

"Our journalist reverts to the subject of the mint set up in Jersey some
twelvemonths before, which at that time promised to become a profitable
financial speculation. The manager, Colonel Smyth, he informs us,
originally a landed proprietor, and a man of good family in England, had
been, before the troubles, master of one of his Majesty's provincial
mints, and by virtue of his office an honorary privy councillor. On the
breaking out of the civil war he commanded a regiment in the king's
service, but, at its termination, fled with hundreds of others into
France, from whence he came to Jersey, with his wife and a large train
of domestics, during the Prince of Wales's sojourn in that island. Being
desirous of exercising his former profession, and, moreover, provided
with dies and other coining implements, he succeeded in establishing a
mint under his royal highness's sanction and the countenance of the
governor, but not, as we shall see, under the patronage of the
chancellor of the exchequer.

"In a few months the concern turned out to be an utter failure--partly
owing to mismanagement, partly to an alleged scarcity of bullion. Smyth,
a person of expensive habits, who kept up an extravagant private
establishment, becoming deeply involved, was forced to dispose not only
of his household goods, but of the greater part of his machinery,
reserving merely the dies he had brought over with him. Towards the end
of May he again sought refuge in France, intending, as he said, to send
his wi