RECENT WAR LOANS.

In continuation of the article in the January Journal, may be recorded the following notice, which was issued on February 8th, 1901 :

EXCHEQUER BONDS,

Per Act 64 Vict. ch. 1.

Bearing Interest at £3 per Cent. per Annum, payable quarterly. The First Dividend will be paid on the 7th June, 1901.

Issue of £11,000,000 Bonds, in amounts of £100, £200, £500, £1,000, and £5,000. Repayable at par on 7th December, 1905.

The Governor and Company of the Bank of England are authorized by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury to receive Tenders for Exchequer Bonds, as above, to the amount of £11,000,000.

The Bonds will be dated the 7th March, 1901, and will be repayable on the 7th December, 1905. They will rank in all respects with the issue of £3,000,000 dated the 7th December, 1900, which are also repayable on the 7th December, 1905.

Interest at £3 per cent. per annum will be paid by Coupon, the first Dividend being payable on the 7th June, 1901.

Tenders, which must be accompanied by a deposit of £3 per cent., will be received at the Chief Cashier's Office, Bank of England. The list will be opened on Monday, the 11th February. In case of partial allotment, the balance of the amount paid as deposit will be applied towards the payment of the first instalment. Should there be a surplus after making that payment, such surplus will be refunded by cheque.

The dates on which the further payments will be required, are as follows: So much as, when added to the deposit, will leave Seventy-five Pounds (Sterling) to be paid for each hundred pounds of Bonds

on Friday, 22nd February, 1901.

£25 per cent. on Friday, 22nd March, 1901.

£50 per cent. on Friday, 12th April, 1901.

The instalments may be paid in full on, or after, the 22nd February, 1901, under discount at the rate of £3 per cent. per annum.

In case of default in the payment of any instalment at its proper date, the deposit and the instalments previously paid will be liable to forfeiture. Scrip Certificates to bearer will be issued in exchange for the provisional receipts.

Notice will be given in the Public Press when the Definitive Bonds are ready.

Tenders must be on printed forms, which may be obtained at the Bank of England, or any of its Branches; at the Bank of Ireland; or of Messrs. Mullens, Marshall & Co., 4, Lombard Street, London, E.C.

The Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury reserve the right of rejecting any Tenders.

Bank of England,

8th February, 1901.

The applications in response to this notice amounted to £25,390,700 at prices varying from £100 to £93. Tenders at £97 2s. received about 83 per cent. of the amount applied for, those above that price being allotted in full. The average price obtained for the bonds There were 886 successful applicants and 700

was £97 5s. 4d.

unsuccessful.

EARLY VICTORIAN COINAGE.

The following notes relating to the British Coinage in the early years of Queen Victoria's reign have recently been issued.

1837, July 26th.-On this day a Proclamation was issued, which commences by stating that by a former Proclamation bearing date 1st January, 1801, the Arms of Hanover were directed to be borne in an escutcheon of pretence on the Arms of England, with the electoral bonnet; that His Majesty in the year 1816 had substituted to his ancient title of Elector of the Holy Roman Empire the title of King of Hanover, and directed that the Arms of Hanover should be surmounted by the Hanoverian Royal Crown; that whereas by the demise of his most Sacred Majesty, the German dominions had passed from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and devolved upon His Royal Highness Prince Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, now King of Hanover, it is therefore declared that henceforth the shield or escutcheon of pretence representing his late Majesty's dominions in Germany shall be omitted, and that the Arms of Great Britain and Ireland shall be used only. The Proclamation concludes by stating that it is not intended to affect the currency of such monies as have the escutcheon aforesaid.

1838, June 8th.-An order in Council of this date directs the coinage of a five-pound piece, a sovereign and a half sovereign, all of the same type, viz., the ensigns armorial of the United Kingdom,

contained in a plain shield, surmounted by the Royal Crown and encircled by a laurel wreath, and the inscription VICTORIA REGINA FID. DEF. with the rose, thistle and shamrock placed beneath the shield. The five-pound piece to have the words Decus et Tutamen, etc., on the edge, and the double-sovereign and halfsovereign to have merely a graining. The type of the half-sovereign to be the arms without the wreath.

1838, July 5th.-Proclamation for a new coinage of Gold, Silver and Copper, from the five-pound piece to the farthing, together with the usual Maundy Money, was made on this day.

1838, July 18th.-A Proclamation of this date directs that the double-sovereign, sovereign and half-sovereign shall be received, and pass as current money, provided each piece respectively be of the weight of ten pennyweights and five grains, five pennyweights and two and a-half grains, and two pennyweights thirteen grains and one-eighth of a grain.

Two years elapsed between the Queen's accession to the throne and the issuing of the first half-crown, a delay occasioned partly because coins of other denominations were more urgently wanted for the general currency of the country, but chiefly because the artist was supplied with dies, which, either from some original defect or improper management in the subsequent process, were destroyed in the hardening, so that at least eight original dies of the obverse of the half-crown were successively engraved before one could be prepared for use.

The only five-pound piece issued before 1887 was one coined in 1839 as a pattern. It has a fine head of the Queen on the obverse, and on the reverse, a beautiful symbolic figure of Una and the Lion, with the inscription DIRIGIT DEUS GRESSUS MEOS. MDCCCXXXIX.

The most beautiful coin of this period is a crown piece struck in 1847, from dies engraved by W. Wyon, R.A. It is in somewhat low relief, and bears on the obverse an exquisite profile portrait of the Queen, to the left, filling up the entire diameter of the coin. Her Majesty wears an open four-arched crown; the hair, being plaited, is brought down below the ear, and fastened at the back of the head; shoulders and bosom draped with delicate and elaborately ornamented lace, pearls and jewels, the portion of the robe visible being diapered with roses, thistles and shamrocks in lozenges. Legend:-Victoria dei gratia britanniar re : f. d. Reverse: -Within the inner circle four shields (two England, one Scotland, one Ireland), arranged as a cross, within a tressure of eight arches; each shield crowned, the crowns extending through the legend and to the extremity of the coin. In the centre, the Star of the Order of the Garter, and in the angles between the shields, which are diapered, a rose twice repeated, a thistle and a shamrock; the spandrils and the cusps trefoiled. Legend:ueatur unita deus anno dom. mdcccxlvii.

Round the

edge, decus et tutamen anno 'regni 'undecimo. Usually known as the "Gothic Crown." Defective dies, or improper treatment of them in the hardening, again destroyed the labours of the artist; this elaborate design was abandoned, and the coin unfortunately never came into circulation.

The following table shows the earliest date in Queen Victoria's reign upon which the several coins were respectively issued:

The Britannia groat ceased to be coined for home use in 1856. But there was a subsequent issue of this piece for British Guiana in 1888, specimens of which are occasionally now met with in this country.

In 1843 half-farthings were issued for use both at home and in the Colonies. The obverse is as that on the other copper pieces, with a fuller legend, while the reverse has the value and date in three lines across the field, a crown above, and the rose, thistle and shamrock below. These were not struck after 1856.

The only coins bearing Queen Victoria's effigy, dated 1837, were those struck as medals, or proofs.

If demand arose in 1837 before the new dies were ready, coins were no doubt struck from existing dies of William IV.

The Bank of England received no silver coin from the Mint in 1837.

MAUNDY MONEY.-None of these monies were originally intended for circulation, but, as coin of a low denomination was thought convenient for use in Jamaica, a considerable number of threepences and half-groats were exported to the island, and issued for currency.

Three-halfpenny pieces were also coined for circulation in the island of

Ceylon.

NOTES ON RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY.

Clearing Houses. Their History, Methods and Administration. By JAMES G. CANNON.

Vice-President of the Fourth National Bank of the City of New York.

THE Clearing House Associations of America differ from those in this country in their objects as well as in their methods, in the terms which they employ in their daily work, and also in the meaning which they attach to many terms borrowed from ourselves. This book, therefore, which is a full and complete description of all the most important among the Clearing Houses of the United States, will be found a most necessary text-book for those who desire to make themselves really acquainted with the subject. In the United States the functions of a Clearing House are frequently extended so as to cover almost all matters of mutual interest among bankers, and in this respect it may readily be admitted that we might, with advantage, follow their practice more closely. Among these additions to the mere work of clearing mutual claims will be found the fixing of uniform rates of interest, and of uniform rates of exchange and charges for collections. Further, in the most important cities the Clearing Houses have arrangements for the mutual assistance of members in times of pressure by the issue of Clearing House Loan Certificates. Many of these points have already been described at some length in the Journal of the Institute, but the present work affords more ample details of their procedure. It would be interesting, however, to know whether the authority of the resolutions of Clearing House Committees has been successful in preventing the constant diminution of banking profits by undue competition. It would appear from some parts of Mr. Cannon's history that uniform rates of interest have sometimes had to be abandoned, and that charges agreed upon may be evaded by allowing rebates.

*

The banking organisation of the United States has one great difficulty which exists here in only a very trifling degree. This

Vol. III, p. 551 et seq.-The Clearing System of the United States.

Vol. V, p. 481 et seq.-On the Action of the New York Clearing House during the Crisis.