MEDALS AND COINS. PLATE I. MEDAL TO COMMEMORATE THE TRIUMPH OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. Device. Head of Liberty; the hair blown back as if by the wind, against which the goddess seems to be running, to announce to the world the tidings of her victories. On the right shoulder she bears a liberty cap. Legend. LIBERTAS AMERICANA. 4. Juil 1776. Reverse. Pallas holding in her left hand a shield on which are three fleurs de lis (the arms of France); opposed to her is a leopard (England), in the act of springing, into whose breast she is about to plunge a barbed javelin that she holds in her dexter hand. Beneath the shield is an Infant strangling with one hand a serpent, which he is holding up, whilst he stoops and chokes another found at his feet. Legend. NON SINE DIIS ANIMOSUS INFANS This bronze Medal belongs to the Worden Collection of the N. Y. State Library; it is a beautiful specimen of art, and in its design highly classical. Hercules, according to the ancient mythology, was said to have strangled whilst in his cradle, two serpents which had assaulted him, having been assisted by the protection of the goddess Pallas. Infant AMERICA, like Hercules in his cradle, had destroyed two British armies. The two epochs of those exploits are marked in the Exergue 17 Oct. 1777Burgoyne's Surrender at Saratoga-and 19th Octob. 1781Cornwallis' Surrender at Yorktown, Va. The motto is from Horace, Ode 4, Book III. v. 20. The allusion is highly appropriate. The Medal was struck by the French Government. 1 Mease's Descript. of Amer. Medals, 3 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. IV, 307. THE smaller engraving on this plate is a representation of a rare Copper cent, struck soon after the Treaty of peace. The Device on this coin is a laurelled head of Washington. Inscription, Washington and Independence, 1783. Reverse, A wreath inclosing the words "One Cent" Inscription, UNITY STATES OF AMERICA, T. The coin from which this engraving was made, belongs to the Albany Institute, to which it was presented by Mr. William McElroy. It has been declared by some to be the WASHINGTON CENT, but the probability is that it is a token manufactured at the time in England by some private speculator, and sent for circulation to America, and that the portrait of Washington, (which is very well executed,) was selected to give it greater currency. It is mentioned by Felt, Mass. Currency, p. 252, who adds that it is not mentioned in the Journals of Congress. PLATE II. THE ROSA AMERICANA COINS. The four engravings on this plate are 1o a farthing; 2° and 3° a half penny, of different dates; 4o a penny. On the last, the Device, is a laurelled Head of George I. Legend, GEORGIUS D: G: MAG: BRI: FRA: ET HIB: Rex. The inscription on the farthing is merely, Georgius D. G. Rex; on the Reverse, ROSA AMERI. UTILE DULCI, 1722. On the half penny the inscription is, GEORGIUS. DEI. GRATIA. REX. The reverse of the farthing and half penny of 1722 wants the crown, which was added in the following year. These specimens of antient colonial currency, belong to the collection of the Albany Institute. There is a notice in 3 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. vii., 282, 283, of the half penny and penny (the latter of 1722) by Dr. MEASE, of Philadelphia, who conjectures, though erroneously, that they were probably coins of the Old Thirteen Colonies. No such coin as this was struck by any of the old colonies. Its history, though not much known, is very curious, and par |