The gold coins issued by Edward III in 1344 were valued at 6 shillings,* and weighed 4 dwts. 19 1/5grs. The Tower Pound was therefore coined into 50 pieces and was worth in tale £15 of the money of that time. The Tower Pound of Standard Silver being at this time worth 22s. 2d., the relation of fine gold to fine silver was rated at about 12 1/2 to 1. The gold coins were, however, considered to be over-rated, and were refused in payment; they were therefore shortly afterwards withdrawn. In the same year the gold Noble + was issued, and the following table gives the particulars of its debasements, which were for some time carried on by reducing its weight, as in the case of the silver coins. It will be observed that the dates of the debasements of gold and silver coin tally exactly, and that the relative value of gold and silver was, by this means, more or less exactly maintained.

* They were intrinsically worth about nineteen shillings of modern money + Half- or maille-nobles and quarter- or farthing-nobles were coined at the same time. These coins gradually worked their way into favour, though it was at first necessary to provide that no one should be obliged to take them in payment of less than 20s. They bore a device of the king standing in the centre of a ship with his sword drawn, in commemoration of the defeat of the French fleet at Sluys and of the other naval victories of Edward III.

The remaining debasements of the silver coinage were for the most part accompanied by a corresponding rise in the nominal value of the gold coins. Another coin was generally at the same time introduced which took, under a new name, the former value of the old coin. The following is a table of the debasements of the gold coinage upon this system.

From this it will be seen that in 1527 there was, so to speak, a double debasement, the coins being increased in tale at the same time that they were reduced in weight. The coins of the new standard of 22 carats fine were in the meantime debased by weight only, according to the following table.

* The angel was introduced to supply the place hitherto filled by the noble. It bore an angel on its obverse, the ship of Edward III being placed on the reverse.

+ Also called a rial. This coin had exactly the same weight as the nobles of Edward III in 1353, which passed at 6s. 8d.

+ The sovereign (so called because it represented the king on his throne in royal robes) was introduced by Henry VII, who assigned to it its legitimate value of 20s., its weight being twice that of the rose noble, or 10 dwt. 16 grs.

§ The low exchangeable value of gold for silver, as here shown, was the most pernicious effect of the disgraceful debasement of the silver coins. The profit on exchanging silver for gold was, in 1551, 128 per cent., and in 1552, when gold, as estimated by the coinage, was to silver in a relation of less than 2 1/2 to 1, the profit is said to have exceeded 355 per cent. The infliction of the most severe penalties was powerless to prevent the exchange of silver coins at less than their nominal value, and we are told that 21s. in silver was at one time given for an angel, nominally worth only 10s. (Stowe's ' Survey of London/ vol. i, p. 88). The farmers, too, preferred exporting many necessaries to selling them for the base silver coin.

In 1601, moreover, Elizabeth reduced the weight of the angel of the old standard from 3 dwt. 8 grs. to 3 dwt. 7 grs., thereby raising the current value of a Pound Troy of the old standard to £36 10s. As from this date no change was made in the silver currency, it might be supposed that the value of gold coin also remained fixed. But another influence about this time began to affect the relations of the two metals. This was the discovery of the American mines.* Soon after the accession of James I, the extensive importations of silver into Europe necessitated a further debasement of the gold coinage; the angel of the old standard was reduced in weight to 2 dwts. 23 grs., and the sovereign of the new standard was replaced by the ' Unite,' which weighed 6 dwt. 10| grs. But this change soon proved quite insufficient, and James, finding that his Unites passed for 22 shillings abroad, authorised a rise of 2 shillings in the pound, or 10 per cent. in the nominal value of all gold coins. Thus, in the short space of seven years, the value of gold rose 21 per cent. as compared with that of silver, and James I, in the 17th year of his reign, made a further reduction in the weight of gold coins of both standards, the new twenty-shilling piece being named a Laurel. It appears, however, that these latter alterations were too rapid, as great inconvenience was occasioned during the reigns of James I and Charles I by the scarcity of silver coin occasioned by the low comparative value given by the mint to silver bullion, which naturally drove away the merchants almost entirely. But the still increasing price of gold gradually remedied the evil, and we are told by Sir William Davenant* that £1,000,000 of silver was coined between 1649 and 1658, while the value of the gold coined during the same period is elsewhere said to have been only £154,000. Thus in 1663 Charles II again reduced the gold coins; and the new Laurel was called a Guinea.+ The following table exhibits the changes in the name and weight of the twenty-shilling piece of the new standard from the accession of James I up to this year.

* It is remarkable that the effect of this discovery was not felt sooner. It is suggested by Lord Liverpool (p. 49) that it may have been checked for a time by the demand for silver plate and ornaments caused by the increasing luxury of Europe.

The price of gold as compared with that of silver therefore rose 33 per cent. in a period of sixty years. Nevertheless the guinea, during the reigns of Charles II and James II passed by common consent, for twenty-one or twenty-two shillings, and Locke says that the gold coins varied 'according to the current rate,' i. e., according to the market relation of gold to silver. Another circumstance about this time caused a still more rapid rise in the exchangeable value of gold coin. This was the wretchedly' imperfect state into which the silver coins fell towards the close of the seventeenth century. In 1695 they wanted nearly half their weight, and Lowndes says that the guinea even passed at thirty shillings. The new silver coins were hoarded or exported, while the old hammered, clipped, and abraded money continued to be given in exchange. As the only remedy for such a state of things, the old coins were declared no longer current, and were refused by the Government in payment of taxes after the 4th May, 1696, and a general recoinage of 'milled' silver money was instituted. At the same time the exchangeable value of the Guinea was restricted by Act of Parliament to twenty-six shillings, and afterwards to twenty-two shillings. Yet very small practical results were achieved by these energetic measures, and the government financiers viewed with dismay the exportation of the new silver coin, which had been manufactured at an outlay which has been variously estimated at from two to three millions.