The Gold, Silver, and Copper Coins of England

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Excerpt from The Gold, Silver, and Copper Coins of England: Exhibited in a Series of Fac-Similes of the Most Interesting Coins of Each Successive Period, Printed in Gold, Silver, and Copper, Accompanied by a Sketch of the Progress of the English Coinage From the Earliest Period to the Present TimeHistorical event, and, in the last case, that of the head with the inscription, the precise date also is generally discoverable with ease so that a coin, of which the purpose (for we know it was a piece of money), the country, and the date, cannot be disputed, besides nyeying at once a general idea of the arts, resources, and manners of the people at the epoch of its circulation, must, when brought to bear on special events, become incontrovertible testimony to facts which might otherwise be doubted. An example may be taken in the following rather exaggerated instance - After the literary darkness of the middle ages, so great was the excitement on the revival of philosophy and learning, that in the general indignation against the superstitions, prejudices, and bigotries with which medi aeval knowledge had been overladen, many of the esprits-fom of that time felt inclined to deny all recorded history as a monkish juggle, and one case is recorded where a newly-emancipated student declared his belief, that the whole story of Rome was an invention of the monks, and he disposed of the twelve first Caesars, in particular, by declaring their names to be nothing more than other terms for the twelve signs of the zodiac. But how might such rash and ignorant speculation have been controverted by the accidental disinterment of a hoard of Roman coins of several successive emperors (such as is of very frequent occurrence), exhibiting the exquisite art, unequalled in some of its features by any modern efforts, the most perfect chronolo gical exactness in accordance with written history, endless records of particular dates through the medium of consulships, victories, and even crimes, engraven upon them, how completely, we may imagine, would such a discovery have silenced the ardent sceptic, and de molished his hypothesis. Even crimes were alluded to, as possibly recorded, upon such a series of coins one striking instance of which may be mentioned z - Written history tells us that the monster Caracalla, after the murder of his brother Geta, caused even his effigy in every shape to be obliterated, and coins have been dis covered, and are now in existence, which originally bore the efiigies of both brothers (at the time of their association in the government.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.