"On the 12th December, 1812, a letter from Lord Chetwynd, clerk of the Privy Council, dated 18th November, 1812, in reply to the Lieut.-Governor's application, having been read, the States instructed their Committee to take the necessary steps for the coining and putting in circulation in the island of small silver coins to the value of not more than £10,000 of such amounts and design as they may consider most suitable.
"On the 20th March, 1813, the silver coinage struck at the Royal Mint by authority of the Lords of the Privy Council for circulation in the island, being expected to arrive any day, which coins are of the value some of 3s., some of 1s. 6d., and bear on one side the arms of the island, and on the other their value—the States instructed their Committee to take the necessary steps to put these coins into circulation as soon as they arrive, and the States engaged to take back the coins at their respective value, whenever it may become necessary, after having given one month's notice, both by publication in the several parishes and by advertisements in the local newspapers, to the holders to bring the coins to the Treasurer of the States, and receive the amount thereof."
The Viscount of Jersey [Le Gros], in a letter dated Seafield, 19th October, 1893, further informs me:—
"The result of the issue of these coins was that they were exported in large quantities—to Guernsey especially, and, I am told, to Canada also, where they were at a premium, passing, no doubt, as if of the same value as English coins of the same denominations.
"These coins, or what remained of them in the island, were called in by the States in 1834, in which year English money was declared the sole legal tender."
The above-named two Jersey silver tokens read respectively:—
O. states of Jersey, 18 13 = The arms of Jersey—viz., gules, three lions passant gardant or.
R. THREE | SHILLINGS | TOKEN, in three lines, within a wreath of oak leaves.
and
O. states of Jersey, 11 13 = the arms of Jersey.
R. EIGHTEEN | PENCE | TOKEN, in three lines, within a wreath of oak leaves.
These silver tokens were the only coins of that metal ever struck for the Channel Islands. The countermarked Spanish dollars, indented "Bishop de Jersey and Co.," belong to Guernsey, and will be noticed together with the other coins of that island.