The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1865-04-07
The Romance of Coins.

The coins of Constantine the Great, 306
A. D., will always remain Of peculiar inter.
est. MS connected with the early history Of
Christianity. Constantine, after forcing his
brother.iu.law Lucinius. from his eastern do.
minions, built Constantlnople, and made
Christianity the State religion. The princi.
pal emblem upon his coins In the L,barum.
or sacred banner. bearing the monogram of
Christ-the letters X and P-[the Greek in
itials for Christ. j the angles Of which are o..
cuped by the first and last letters of the
Greek alphabet, Alp and Omega. in allu.
sion to Christ's declaration In Revelation.
A rarer type OF Constantine's coins has the
monogram. and the legend, In hoe signo rim
ces. The signum was the vision of beauti-
ful cross in the heavens, which was present.
cd to the view Of Constantine, near Milan,
during his march against Maxentus. To this
cross he attributed both his victory and con.
version @ H.f
The first manifestation of displeasurc be-
tween the mother country and the colonies.
was with Massachusetts,, of course. The old
Bay State was ~ impatient toward Masters
then, rs later in the Revolution against
George. and still later with tho shareholders,
Charles n. was dspleased With the colonists
for coming money. which he considered his
prerogative, and intimated to Sir Thomas
Temple that they must be punished; and the
business stopped. Sir Thomas was consider.
able of n wag. and showed the king one OF
honest John Hull's shillings, on the reverse
of which was tho pine tree. The king asked
him what sort of tree that was. Upon
which Sir Thomas replied that, Of course, it
was the royal oak, which had saved his maj.
esty's life. The king smiled at the courtier's
wit but 1t is not reported that he allowed
Hull to continue the coinage.
Coins have figured in sermons. Bishop
Latimer, on the eighth of March, l549. de-
livered the following sarcastic sermon. On
q previous occasion he had spoken iestingly
of the new currency Of Edward vi. For
this he WAS accused OF sedition, which charge
ho answered thus: . ID.
"Thus they burdened me even with sedi-
ton. And wot ye what? | CHANGED in INV
last sermon to speak u merry word Of u new
shilling to refresh my auditory, how | was
like to put away nv new shilling for an old
groat. was therein noted to speak sedi.
tiously. '.'..T IL ..
| have now gotten one more followo, o
companion of sedition and wot you who is
my followe? Essay (lsaah) the prophet. |
spake but of prettie shilling; but he
spe,kcth to Jerusalem after another sort, and
was 10 bold rs to meddle with their coynes.
'Thou proud, thou naughty city OF Jtrus,
lem. Argenium ttum Uersum IN scorian;:'
thy silver il turned into what? into testious
scor,ari. into drOss. All /! seditious wretch
what has he to do with mint? Why should
hc not have left that matter to some masters
of policy to reprove? Thy silver is dross, it
Is counterfeit; thy silver is turned thou
hast no silver. What pertained that to E'.
say? Marry. he replied, piece Of diversity
in that policy; he threateneth Gods ven.
geance for It, .
He went to the root of the matter, which
was covetousness, which became him to re-
prove; or else that 1t tended to the hurt of
poor people for the naughtiness of tho sill
yer was the occasion of dearth Of all things
in tho realm. He imputeth it to them US II
crime. He NAV be called master Of sedi-
ton indeed. Was not this sedtious fel.
low, to tell them this even to their faces?"
In England, during tho reign of George
ILL.,, an act was passed to amend m act of
the 5lst Of the king. respecting tho gold
coin and the notes of tho Bank of England.
BY this act the provisions Of tho former stat.
ute were extended to Ireland. aud the notes
of the bank thero were placed upon the same
basis MS those Of the Bank OF England :
Continental Monthly.