Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/119

Rh one in silver was to be found. Stephen himself is also charged with having, in his necessities, resorted to the expedient of diminishing the weight of the penny. When Henry II. came to the throne, however, he put down all this base money; and none of the baronial coins of Stephen's reign are now known to exist, with the exception of a few bearing the names of his son Eustace, and of his brother, the Bishop of Winchester, which were probably issued by the royal licence.

Henry I., on his accession, abolished the tax of moneyage, which had been introduced either by the Conqueror or his son Rufus; and he afterwards effected a reform of the coinage, which had been greatly corrupted by the frauds of the moneyers. Henry II. also called in all the old coins in circulation in the year 1180. No coins are known to be in existence either of Richard I. or John, as kings of England, although there are some of the former as Earl of Poictou and as Duke of Aquitaine, and of the latter as lord of Ireland.

An English penny of Richard's is given in various collections of plates of coins, but is admitted to be a forgery. Mr. Ruding, speaking of it and another of John, says—" These two pennies are now well known to be the fabrication of a late dealer in coins, who pretended to have discovered them amongst some which were found upon Bramham Moor in Yorkshire. He sold one of them for thirty guineas; the other remained in his possession, and was disposed of with the rest of his collection, after his death." The man's name was White.

The earliest Scotch coins that have been discovered are some of Alexander I., who began his reign in 1107. The Scotch money appears to have, at this period, entirely corresponded with the English; and, indeed, the circulation of Scotland probably consisted in great part of English coins.

In regard to the real or efficient value of the money of those days, as compared with that of our present money,