Brewer's: Graceless Florin

The first issue of the English florins, so called because the letters D.G. (“by God's grace”) were omitted for want of room. It happened that Richard Lalor Sheil, the master of the Mint, was a Catholic, and a scandal was raised that the omission was made on religious grounds. The florins were called in and re-cast. (See Godless Florin.)

Mr. Sheil was appointed by the Whig ministry Master of the Mint in 1846; he issued the florin in 1849; was removed in 1850, and died at Florence in 1851, aged nearly 57.

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