SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
All sorts and conditions of small coins were formerly current in the Channel Islands. These were almost entirely of French mintage. Even at the present day, if at any ordinary shop in Jersey you take change in coppers, you will probably find amongst them two or three French sous, two or three Jersey pence or half-pence, an English penny or two, and one or two coins of Spain or Italy, and, until lately, even perhaps one of the numerous coins introduced by the Russian troops who were formerly in Jersey.
At such public institutions as the main Post Office, none but English and Jersey or Guernsey pence and half-pence are the coppers received or given.
As regards gold and silver currency, none but English-struck coins are usually fully current and tendered everywhere.
Le Quesne, at a footnote, page 263, writes:—"The average weight of a Jersey quarter of wheat is 260 lbs. English. Compared to an English quarter, the proportion is 13⁄24."
The Rev. G. E. Lee says:—"From the earliest times the quarter (Guernsey measure or measures) of wheat has been the unit of currency here, the value of the quarter being every year proclaimed by the Royal Court and affeuré in terms of so many livres and sols tournois.
The livre tournois is now held to be worth 1⁄14 of the Guernsey pound sterling—e.g., in purchasing a property the contract will stipulate the value (even at the present day) in quarters of wheat, generally adding a proviso that the quarter payable is to be redeemed for £14 trs.—i.e., £1 Guernsey sterling. Fines imposed by the Court are always expressed in livres, sols, and deniers tournois."
With reference to extracts furnished me by Mr. Lee, he adds further:—
"English and French coins of every sort seem to have been current here [in Guernsey] from earliest times, the local value being fixed occasionally of such coins as were least in accord with those of Normandy.
"The most common former local coin seems to have been the freluche, which I take to be equal to the double.—i.e., the double denier tournois."