_MISCELLANEOUS:-- Coins-- Seals-- Heraldry in Architecture; in Monuments; in Illuminations; in Encaustic Tiles-- Heraldic Personal Ornaments, and various Heraldic Decorations-- Conclusion._ “The Spandrels over the Wall-arcading are exquisitely beautiful... Those in the western arm contained Shields of a large number of the great men of the day ... the few which remain are nobly executed.” --GLEANINGS FROM WESTMINSTER ABBEY, by G. G. Scott, R.A.: 2nd Edition, p. 33. I. The HERALDRY OF THE COINAGE, in addition to the Shields of Arms of successive Sovereigns, exemplifies the changes that have taken place in the form and adornment of the Crown, and it also is rich in various Badges and Devices having an historical significance. In Coins the Royal Shield is sometimes quartered by a cross charged upon it, as in the silver penny of EDWARD VI. A mediæval ship, having a sail covered with heraldic blazonry, appears on the _Noble_--a coin worthy of its name. A figure of the King in armour (not particularly well proportioned to the size of the vessel), his sword in one hand, and his Shield of arms in the other, is also represented in these fine examples of mediæval numismatic art. A ship without any sail, but in its stead charged with the Royal Shield heightened by a Cross, forms the reverse of another excellent coin, the _Angel_, the obverse bearing a figure of ST. MICHAEL with his lance thrusting down the dragon. The Angel of EDWARD IV. on either side of the Cross has the initial E and the white rose of York; and the legend is-- PER : CRVCEM : TVA : SALVA : NOS : XTE : REDEMPT : (“By thy Cross save us, O Redeemer Christ!”). A Crowned Rose, with a Royal Cypher, is another favourite device; as in the Shilling of Henry VIII., with the legend-- POSVI : DEV : ADIVTOREM : MEVM : (“I have placed God (before me as) my helper”). Such are a few examples of the early Heraldry of English Coins. More recently, and particularly in our own Coinage, Heraldry and Art have declined together, so that feeble designs, but too commonly executed with lamentable consistency, are associated with heraldic inaccuracies which continue uncorrected to this day--witness the _tressure of Scotland_ often incorrectly blazoned on the Royal Shield; and poor BRITANNIA, in her old position, sitting forlorn on the copper and bronze coinage, as if conscious of being constrained to display on her oval Shield an obsolete blazonry, that placed the reign of Queen VICTORIA in the eighteenth century![12] [Footnote 12: The specimens of the existing Coinage of Europe, displayed at the Universal Exposition, at Paris, showed that if the art of the English Mint is now at a low ebb, the prevailing standard of numismatic art is not a single degree higher, the coins of France alone being in many respects an honourable exception to the general rule.]