Numisnta ta Londiniensia. With Descriptive Notices by Charles Welch. (Blades,
East, and Blades.)—This volume, descriptive of " Medals Struck by the Corporation of London to Commemorate Important Municipal Events, 1831-1893," has been prepared by the authority of the Corporation and under the direction of the Library Committee. The medals described are twenty-six in number. The first was struck when New London Bridge was opened in 1S31. Mr. Welch very properly makes it the occasion of a history of the successive bridges which have spanned the Thames at this point. The inscriptions are in English. So are those on the next, which, struck in the following year, com- memorated the passing of the Reform Bill. Britannia, standing, hands a sci ell on which " Reform " is written, to Liberty, kneeling on one knee. Two scrolls, inscribed " Magna Charta " and " Bill of Rights," lie on the ground. On what looks like a tomb- stone are the names, " Grey, Brougham, Althorp, Russell." The opening of the City of London School, and the opening of the new building on the Embankment, the Queen's Jubilee, and the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of York, are among other events commemorated. Mr. Welch rightly claims credit for the Corpora- tion for thus encouraging the numismatic art. The medal struck when Blackfriars Bridge was opened in 1869, exhibits the curious error, " Brit. Reg." Of course the " t " ought to have been doubled.
Previous page
