others, in whom the bare mention of the topic will excite the livelieft at tention to my remarks.

Excepting the coins of the Romans, there has nothing occurred parallel to thefe, within fo fhort a period, fince during the eras of the ancient independent ftates of Greece, when almoft every city had its own diftinct coinage, as is elegantly illuftrated by the engravings and defcriptions of Dr. Combe*. Our modern coins of cities in Britain excel the ancient in neatnefs of finish, from the ufe of the mill, and invention of indenting letters round the outer edge, as much as they fall fhort of them in the high relief and boldness of execution, in the reprefentations which they bear; but in their great variety, and moft cafes, appropriate imagery, they approach the nearest to the merit of the Roman reverses, of any thing that has appeared in the mintages of modern

times.

It is, however, deeply to be regretted, by every loyer of the fine arts, that fo many of thefe pieces are degraded by puerile and contemptible devices: fuch are all emblems of particular trades, or articles of dealing; mere defignations and fign-pofts; and almost all morfels of heraldry, efcutcheons, mottos, fupporters, &c. These can tranfmit no thought, no information to pofterity. The amazing durability of coins fhould be ever remembered by thofe who are concerned in iffuing them; and fach defigns adopted as may reflect the moft friking, and important features of the prefent times. Among feveral hundreds of differently defigned pieces in my poffeffion, fuch only as come under fome of the fix following def criptions feem to deferve being fignalized and recommended to imita

tion:

1. Such as have fac fimiles of remarkable buildings; e. g. The Canterbury halfpenny, bearing the cathedral; the York one, with the noble

minster; reverfe, Clifford's towers the Leeds cloth-hall appears upon one of the Leeds tokens; the weftfront of St. Paul's church upon a London one; Ipfwich-crofs, a neat relique of antient architecture, graces the Ipfwich halfpenny; as an old tower, a very entire temain of gothic labour, does that of Dundee; the venerable ruins of Bigod's caftle in Suffolk is on that of Bungay; one of Bedal, in Yorkshire, gives a street in perspective, two inns, and a spire; the fplendid front of the new pumproom, embellishes halfpence and farthings of Bath, &c. Thefe medals (if we may infer from the permanence of thofe of Greece and Rome) fhall exhibit to future times the forms of the ftructures which they bear, long after their originals fhall have faded and mouldered in the duft:

Ambition figh'd he found it vain to trust The faithlefs column, and the crumbling buft;

Huge moles, whofe shadows ftretch'd from

fhore to fhore,

1

Their ruins perish'd, and their place no

more!

Convinc'd, the now contracts her vaft defign,

And all her triumphs fhrink into a coin. POPE.

The Abbeys of Melrose, Pailey, St. Andrews, Arbroath, &c. and the best modern buildings in Edinburgh and Glafgow, would be defirable objects for Scottish provincial pieces.

II. Others afford reprefentations of the great and ufeful undertakings of the prefent times; fuch as the ironbridge over the Severn, on the Colebrook-Dale halfpenny; reverse, the inclined plane at Ketley: Thames and Severn canal piece, has a barge failing; reverfe, a maffy, aqueduct bridge; a Kent halfpenny, on the union of Appledore, has a wind-mill, the miller, and his houfe; the great iron-works of Wilkinson are differently portrayed on his currency, It is to be lamented, that among the few

Amck for Scotland, not one comes under this description. How ornamental and honourable would it be, for fome of them to bear the figures, and perpetuate the dates of the erection of the greatest foundry in the world at Carron; the north-bridge at Edinburgh; the elegant bridges at Perth and Glafgow; the great quay at Aberdeen; or the vaft and useful aquedut over, the Kelvin, fupporting, at a ftupendous elevation, one of the greatest canals in Europe!

·

III. Striking emblems of that spirit of industry and commerce, which characterizes the prefent times, and efpecially the British nation. One payable at Ipfwich, has May God preferve the plough and fail;' a team in a field, and a fhip in full fail, coming into view behind a headland: a weaver is at work upon a Haverhill coin; reverse, a plough and shuttle: fhips in full fail are meet infignia of the trade of Liverpool, Yarmouth, Shields, Portfea, and the Cinque Ports; as a fheep, reverse, a woollen weaver, is of the manufacture of Rochdale; and a hop-plantation of the best product of the county of Suffex; the rapid and ufeful mail coach, and exhibitions of whale-fifhing, and hat-making, are upon different London pieces, &c. IV. Illuftrious characters and remarkable men, in British history, have now their features tranfmitted to diftant climes and ages,' upon common currency; which, perhaps, conveys the charge of Fame, better than expenâve medallions. Newton, Shakfpeare, Johnfon, Howard, Howe; and the founders, or greatest benefactors of Bath, Southampton, Lancaster, &c. are honoured upon pieces of general circulation. Of this clafs it must be obferved with regret, that the portraits are in general far from being accurate fuch as they are, however, it must be acknowledged, that they are upon the whole, not inferior to the gene

feen

ral merit of the effigies of the Roman emperors, in coin of the lower empire, the fcarce ones of which (without regard to their barbarous execution, or the contemptible or detest-able characters of their prototypes) are collected with fo much eagerness and expence. Ours are not lets worthy of being styled the

Concifum argentum in titulos, faciesque minutast.

In this refpect alfo, Scotland creeps at more than her ufual diftance behind the fifter kingdom. Why are the features of Buchanan, Napier, the admirable Crichton, Hume, Robertson, Black, Cullen, and Reid, configned to the fugitive materials, and faithlefs charge of paper and canvafs and not a fingle medal recording their likeneffes to pofterity?

V. The dignity of others confifts in their recording hiftorical events; or fhew the very age and body of the time its form and preffure,' in bearing fym. bols of the high spirit of political party, which is characteristic of thefe days. The naval victory on the 1ft of June, 1794; the nuptials of the prince of Wales; the imprifonment of Ridgeway and Symonds; and the acquittal of Hardy are recited on London halfpence. One exhibits Paine on a gibbet, as a worthless criminal; while others clafs him with fir Thomas More, and mention him with applaufe, &c.

VI. Some, laftly, are merely cu rious: bathing machines and fishing boats appear on the Lowestoffe piece; the engraver James has been very fuccefsful in two landscapes upon the oppofite fides of his Dudley token; and his elephant upon the Pidcock exhibition pieces, is, at least, as well reprefented as the fame animal is by old Roman artists, upon denarii, of the family Cecilia, or upon those of Juliuis, and of Augustus.

Juvenal, in his Vth Satire.

I now earnestly folicit the attention of all companies and individuals, who may henceforth be difpofed to employ the artists of Birmingham, London, &c. to fabricate coins for them, to the foregoing obfervations, which, I humbly flatter myself, will be approved by every perfon of tafte, who has made the medallic art a study; and it is much to be wished, that particular injunctions, were given to the engravers, to have the figures on the piece much bolder and higher raifed than is ufually done, which is effected by having them more deeply cut into the dye; and the dotted circle by which the figures on the field are protected, should be much ftronger, and more elevated; the fhapes of even most of these pieces which I have commended, are too thin and bond; tey fhould be increased in thickness, even though their circumference fhould thereby be diminished.

There has just now been communicated to me a small copper coin; the part of a rupee, done for the EaftInd a Company, by Mr. Boulton of Birmingham, upon a new principle, admirably calculated to preferve both the figures and legend from being defaced by attrition:-the whole field of the piece is protected by a circle, broad, plain, and confiderably elevated, into which the letters are indented in intaglio, in the fame form as they ufually are round the external rim This improvement is differently modified in different pieces; fome having circular and others elliptical portions of the field, bearing the more interefting fubjects of the defign, funk deeper than the level of the exterior parts. The origin of this beautiful invention feems to have been from the hand of Dupré, a Parifian artist, in his fine medaille qui fe vend cinq fols chez Monniron', ftruck on the first great æra of the French Revolution in 1790.

It may, perhaps, be objected, that thefe improvements will occafion an

additional expence, and confequent reduction of the profits of circulation; but it is to be confidered, that even if lefs weight of copper were given in that form, the public would be no lofer, becaufe the pieces would be greatly lefs liable to wear by friction, than when almoft the whole rough furface is expofed to continual rubbing, as by the prefent ftyle of infipid bas relief. Among the best provincial coins recently published, not a few are unhappily found deftitute of the dates of the years when they were iffued. Such is the defect of most of the pieces of Kempfon in Birmingham, bearing public buildings; on those of Skidmore, Holborn; although the periods when St. Andrew's and St. Luke's churches were founded are given, no year appears for the coins: Caermarthen halfpenny has the ironworks, and the Stratford one, commemorates Shakspeare, and tells what every body knows, the years of his birth and death; but thefe pieces are registered into no æra of time with refpect to themselves. In monuments fo lafting, this is a moft deplorable and radical defect. The omiffion cannot be too feverely reprobated; nor its future correction too earnestly enjoined.

It should finally be obferved, that as the tradefmen who iffue provincial currency are, in fome cafes, perfons of no great knowledge or tafte, it is the duty of the engravers or undertakers employed by them, to fuggeft the defigns and form which might confer the greatest degree of refpectability' on the appearance of their coins; for this purpofe the attention of artifts is humbly requested to these remarks. Let it be impreffed upon the mind of every citizen, that this is a fubject in which, as a great master * of it has told us, THE PERPETUAL GLORY OF THE NATION IS INTE

RESTED.'

From beyond the Tweed, July, 1796.

CIVIS.