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[Page 4]
We have one instance of a Reverse in our Current Coin which Exhibits proves much Talent in the Contriver of it, but as it is a simple Instance the only one we possess it has hitherto attractd Little notice. has hitherto been taken of it The Britannia on our Copper Coin is seated on the Globe, in token of her that Every Part of it the World can Completly assist us in Deriving Continual Comfort & advantage from Every Part of it administers Continualy to her Comfort & advantages to her Convenience in her Right hand She holds out the Olive of Peace, Stretching forward her arm, as willing to bestow it on Every human being who will do her the Favor to accept it, on Left arm her Spear is Placed Poised as far back as Possible & behind her, but immediately within her reach her Shield is rested on the Earth, both ready, without an Idea of menace, for instant use Should her benevolent offer of Peace be disdainfully Refusd or Treacherously acceeded to. The Trident introduced on the new Copper Coin is if well weighd (sic) an ill balanced allusion it gives all to the navy & in doing so takes from the Army what the Nation had before bestowd (sic) upon them it, The Trident is wholly a naval Emblem, the Spear is Equally the Representative of warfare, naval or military
This Britannia as it Stood till alterd in Mr Boltons new Coinage, was first Placd on the Reverse of the Pattern of a Royal Token in the 15th Ch, 2nd 1665. The inscription round it originaly was Quatuor Maria Vindico, Tradition tells us that this Motto was withdrawn & the word Britannia Substitutd in its Place in Consequence of a menace from France, if this is True, it is was the first instance of an Abatement on the our Part of England of the high Claim of the nation to the Sovereignty of the Four Seas, which Seldom has so ably defended in this Mare Clausum against the deemed but inclusive argument of Grotius Mare Liberum
This very ingenious delineation of the actual State of England as a nation justly Proud of its Commercial & Its naval superiority in the figure of Britannia, remaind intelligible Even