Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Description
Commonwealth coinage, demonetised in 1661-2. On the reverse side they featured the English cross and the Irish harp.
1893 text
The Commonwealth coins (stamped with the cross and harp, and the inscription, “The Commonwealth of England”) were called in by proclamation, September, 1660, and when brought to the Mint an equal amount of lawful money was allowed for them, weight for weight, deducting only for the coinage (Ruding’s “Annals of the Coinage,” 18 19, vol. iii., p. 293). The harp was taken out of the naval flags in May, 1660.
Annotations
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harp and cross crowns.
http://www.cromwellcoins.com/html/v_-_gold_crowns.html
shows images of these coins. They were popularly known as ‘breeches’ coins for reasons that are apparent when you see the images.
Note that there are underscores (not easily visible in this link) on either side of the hyphen and also between ‘gold’ and ‘crowns’.