Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 2.djvu/222

220 pieces continued to be coined in the reign of George II. Upon the gold coins of this reign, the arms, Leake observes, arc properly disposed in one shield crowned, instead of being misplaced in four shields, as had been done upon all the milled money since the Restoration, some few coins of William and Mary excepted. At the commencement of the reign a great deal of the old hammered gold money of James I., Charles I., and Charles II. was still current, under the name of broad-pieces, half broad-pieces, and quarter broad-pieces, much of which was greatly diminished either by wear, or by clipping and filing; but in 1732 all this old money was called in, and paid for at the Mint at the rate of 81s. per ounce; after which it was declared no longer current. In one of George II.'s halfpennies of 1730 an extraordinary blunder occurs, the omission of the in his majesty's name. Foreign gold coins still continued to form a great part of our currency in this reign, much to the general inconvenience. Leake, writing in 1745, gives a deplorable account, also, of the state to which the silver money was already reduced, although most of it was not yet fifty years old. "We have not, indeed," he says, "had any clipping, as formerly, for that is impracticable upon the milled money; but time has minished it in a manner equivalent to clipping. Our sixpences are, many of them, worn to groats, and some shillings are not much better in proportion. The half-crowns are not so bad, but then they are not so common; the latter ones, since King William, being most of them melted or transported; and crowns seem to have answered no other end; they disappear as soon as coined, and indeed are too burdensome for common use, two half-crowns better answering the purpose."