Note 549 — SCENE III.[537]

cracked in the ring] “The gold coin of our ancestors was very thin, and therefore liable to crack. It still, however, continued passable until the crack extended beyond the ring, i.e. beyond the inmost round which circumscribed the inscription; when it became uncurrent, and might be legally refused.” Gifford—note on B. Jonson’s Works, vol. vi. p. 76.