The Wanganui Chronicle. " Nulla Dies Sine Linea." WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1911. THE NEW COINAGE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12710, 22 March 1911, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. " Nulla Dies Sine Linea." WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1911. THE NEW COINAGE.

Cubrv.nt English magazines cCntain lThiiptrati'ons of the'now: coinage of George Ar .> which, in January last, was ready in the .Mint for issue to tb-3 Banks. Tha now .coins are of special interest; to colonials by reason of the fact that tho:. King's Head is th-3 work of-Mr Bertram MacKonnal, A.R.A., who is an Australian by'birth. He is the son of a sculptor,, and lias executed several beautiful statues of thei la to Queen Victoria. As one ''■writer, puts it, thess uew coins are tha latest heiirs <>i a proud and far-reaching ""lino. The family of ."tho English coinage was founded nearly 1400. years ago. Tho fust British coins, if thsy can bo so described, ■were Roman. The extent of tho Roman occupation of England is traced as much by modern "finds" of tho old Roman coins as by any other reUc of that stern and efficient rule. Then cam© a time of turmoil and violence in which .the arts of pea-co were neg'leoted. Tlie first native coins date from the period of the Heptarchy. The Saxon Kings issued cains of arbitrary vducs, and when the whim took them. Tho national coinage was based on its present foundation of regularity .and system by Edward 111.. Of all England's Kings Henry VIII.-lc-ft the do3> osfc mark on his country's coinage. AVej ewe tho name of our mrst valuable coin to that gold piece of his which bore the figure d the Sovereign. He was. tha first ''Fidei Pefensor"—a title which, pregnant with history and with tho agonies of a great rovolt, the new ! coins of tlionew Ki)ig o f England bear to-day. Another .claim, and one hardly loss proud, was made en the coinage of King Edward A 7II. when he assumed tho mighty tide of Emperor of ■all the British Domjinicns here and oveirvea. In the. la\t few hundred years, however, tho story of the English coinnga has ba-n uneventful, and almost monot:nv>us. Queen Anno gavo it a yttb variety with her famous farthing?. Dean Swift .suggested that tho coinage, should celebrate incidents of current history, and these farthings were the result. In later times very curinus ideas prevailed about theim. .Mai:y pcopla hay« believed that only, half i\: dozen were minted, and that [they had, tlitrefcrev an enorjmoiis value. Ti:o idea was as baseless asi tlie late* I report that, by some mistake at the ■Mint, Quoen Victcria's pennies of tire year 18(34 contaiined a proportion cf j.gold. People jiv. Ireland have little [ hffitory to Loast' of in tlie matter ot I ct!ins. They began well "with the &ll- ! vcr pennies of the early Danish Kings, but soon lest their identity in the envei:;ping tide- of English civilisation. \<it thcuv is o.ue coinage affair in which the d-raniatc interest is entirely Irish. Ti:o incident of Janres li:'s debased C;in^ is all our own. In the matter uli-t of AVood's iialfpeii'iies Dean Swift I.:<. jc-omcr>. ior tiio second tims associated -with-'tha stci-y <j{ )irit:fih coinage. So far as can Iw judged from the illustrations, tho new coins of King George V. nro worthy of tJie.'r place, in the long f.'fi!l:ry of modern cciuage," but, as tli3 >r.mo writer l'emarks, it has not always itiDU poitiblo to make this beast about the coins of England. „ "For many years," he says, "our stamps havci compiled vory badly, as specimens of art, with tho.'o of thi smaller South American Republie-.?.. Our coinage has often brtn dull and ugly. At intervals the lintion has made a gentle ijrptest. Tho f,r.at cvont of Queen A rietoria\s Jubilee in 1887 was ci'lLl/iated by a new coin-

rgo of gold atid silver. It was fiercely criticised by Sir Edgar Boehm and «.thers, with the result that a diffet©nt i;.>rtniit of tho Queen was adopted for ilki gold and .silver in 1893. Such ac-ci-£ents oro not likely to occur in the present ix>'gn. AVlieu King George cele-

brates Iw»./Jubj^? r a^. w«. all liopEi that lie" may, he is "quite sure to strike a coinage worthy of the occasion. The King is not specially known to fame as ti nuniisma ; tist, but he 'iis one of tfoa

greatest- living authorities on the sister i art of philately. A King who loves < and studies stamps is very unlikely to b-e careless about the coinage* of his own reign.'?.-• Moreover, if Ring George Leeds' advice on, the subject, lie can get th<3 best advice even within the. narrow , circle of the crowned heads of Europe. _ The King of Jtaly holds liis place among the most learned and most enthusiastic of tli3 numismatists. King Victor, Emamiel has just-published,-• through-, thp Press of the Royal Academy of the, Lineei, the first volume of a great work on the coins of Italy.; The book, when' completed, will be the first general cata-j legue -of. the mediaeval and modern' money coined in Italy, or by Italians in other countries. The King of Italy has been engaged on it fqr nearly tw-omty years, and we are told that, apart from its Royal authorship, it is a work of the very greatest importance. I i | I I I I