dicted would be drawn away to the provinces where the coins had an ascertained value.[1] The suggestion seems to have been adopted either immediately or at a later date, for when Beverley wrote his History, the value of all money sterling in use in Virginia had been fixed by law. Besides coins of English origin, there were coins which had come from the mints of Arabia, France, Portugal, Spain, and Spanish America. Both gold and silver were represented. The silver coin hearing the stamp of France, Spain, or Portugal was appraised at three pence and three farthings a pennyweight. The gold coin of these countries and also of Arabia was valued at five shillings a pennyweight. The English guinea passed current at twenty-six shillings and English silver at an advance of two pence in every shilling. Old English coin was rated in proportion to its weight.[2]
It is significant to find that among the different kinds of money sterling in circulation in the counties on the Eastern Shore was the lion or dog dollar, as it was called, from the device on its face. This was perhaps a Dutch coin which had obtained a furtive admission into the Colony by the smuggling traffic, which, in spite of the Navigation laws, was carried on between the people of those countries and the merchants of Holland Its presence in Virginia as late as 1696 was the strongest evidence of the continuation of this illicit commerce. In the course of that year, a petition was presented by the planters of Accomac to their representatives in the House of Burgesses, to be delivered to that body when it assembled, asking that a legal value be set upon the lion or dog dollar, in order that it might be used to advantage in current business transactions.[3]
