RARE OLD COINS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 12

RARE OLD COINS.

INTERESTING COLLECTION. SACRED PORTRAIT FACSIMILE. Particulars of many rare old coins in his possession are given in a letter from Mr. H. T. Pettit, of Otorohanga. Among them are a number of very old and uncommon specimens of English coinage, including a silver penny of Edward I, a silver penny and a silver sixpence of Queen Elizabeth, a silver half-groat, equivalent to twopence, issued between the time of Charles I. and Cromwell, and known as "Breeches money," a Queen Anne sixpence, and a James I. sixpence; a twenty shillings piece and a five shillings piece of William 111., dated 1698 and 1697, and a Charles 11. farthing of 1675. Among ancient corns of foreign . lands the collection includes an Egyptian coin dating to about 300 8.C., Roman coins from 39 8.C., to the fourth century A.D., and Chinese knife-money and saddleshaped money estimated to go back to the fourth and fifth centuries B.C. The collection also includes interesting more modern coins of foreign countries, such as a Spanish eight reals of 1798, known as a "piece of eight," a Maltese coin of 1796, a Ceylon Rix of George TV., and a Transvaal Kruger penny of 1893 Another correspondent writes stating he possesses a facsimile of a remarkable coin made in the first century A.D., and believed to present a unique portrait of Christ. It is supposed the coin, which bore a Hebrew inscription on the reverse, was nsed as a token to adnyt Christinns to their secret, meetings in the Catacombs of Rome and as a means of recognition- -amoncr <tbe brotherhood.