The great and ever-increasing interest which is manifested in all that appertains to the Colonies and Dependencies of the British Empire, is a quite sufficient justification for the production, at this time, of a work devoted to a consideration of the Coins and Tokens which have, from time to time, been struck for, or been current in, these places. In addition to this, all who at any time may have acquired any such coins (and most persons who are collectors must have done so), as well as systematic seekers after them, have felt the want of some work of reference, to which to turn for guidance and direction. Yet, notwithstanding the importance of the subject, to the best of my belief no attempt has, up to the present, been made to give as a whole, anything approaching a complete or comprehensive list of our Colonial Coins and tokens. And so it has come to pass; whilst every other branch of Numismatic lore has been written upon, over and over again, this large and important section of the coins of our own Empire has been almost entirely neglected. It is true that piecemeal attempts have been made to remedy this state of things. The Rev. H. Christmas, in articles contributed to the Numismatic Chronicle, has dealt with the copper coins of several of our Colonies and Dependencies. Boyne also, in his "Silver Tokens," notices a number of the silver pieces of this series; Clay’s pamphlet (now so difficult to obtain), gives a considerable amount of information concerning the early American and Manx Coins, and several other contributors to the Numismatic press have touched on some portion of the ground which I am now endeavouring to cover entirely. Nor must I omit to mention Mr. C. Stainsfield, whose book on the "Australian Tokens" is so through and painstaking that I have no corrections to make in it, but only to supply notices of some ten or twelve pieces, unknown to the author at the time…
There are no reviews yet.