The Gold Coins of England, Arranged and Described
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THE GOLD COINS OF ENGLAND. FMOTTIS PIECE. Edward die Coiiiessor. 16 TT^mund, Abp.of Yo Offa . King of Mercia ?.$.&&>. THE GOLD COINS OF ENGLAND AERANGED AND DESCRIBED BEING A SEQUEL TO MR. HAWKINS' SILVER COINS OF ENGLAND, BY HIS GRANDSON KOBEET LLOYD KENYON See p. 15. Principally from the collection in tlie British Museum, and also from coins and information communicated by J. Evans, Esq., President of the Numismatic. Society, and others. LONDON: BERNARD QUARITCH, 15 PICCADILLY MDCCCLXXXIV. : LONDON KV1AN AND <ON, PRINTERS, HART STREET. COVENT r,ARI>E\. 5 rubies, having a cross in the centre, and evidently intended to symbolize the Trinity. The workmanship is pronounced by Mr. Akerman to be doubtless anterior to the 8th century. Three of the coins are blanks, which seems to prove that the whole belonged to a moneyer. Nine are imitations of coins of Licinius, and one of Leo, Emperors of the East, 308 to 324, and 451 to 474, respectively. Five bear the names of French cities, Mettis, Marsallo, Parisius. Thirty- nine are of the seven types described in these pages. The remaining forty-three are of twenty-two different types, and all are in weight and general appearance similar to Merovingian ti-ientes. The average weight is 19*9 grains, and very few individual coins differ much from this. With respect to Abbo, whose name appears on this coin, the Vicomte de Ponton d'Ainecourt, who has paid great attention to the Merovingian series, has shown in the " Annuaire de la Societe Francaise de Numismatique " for 1873, that Abbo was a moneyer at Chalon-sur-Saone, pro- bably under Gontran, King of Burgundy, a.d. 561 to 593 ; that to Abbo, a moneyer at Limoges, probably the same person, was intrusted the education of St. Eligius, about a.d. 604; and that this coin found at Crondale bears a considerable resemblance, especially in the form of the letters of the legend, to those struck by Abbo at Chalons and Limoges. Assuming as an indisputable fact that the greater part of the coins found at Crondale were struck in Endand, he concludes that Abbo was one of the Franks who accompanied St. Augustine to England in 596 or 597, that he established a mint in this country, and that after staying here some years, he returned to France and settled at Limoges in or before a.d. 604. If this be so,—and the ascertained facts certainly seem to make it probable,—then this coin, rude as it is, becomes of extreme interest, as being struck under the immediate influence of St. Augustine himself, and forming the connecting link between the coinage of this country and that of France. 6 4. Obv. bust to left, two or three letters in front, EA behind. Eev. a device like an anchor, between letters, perhaps V and C, within a beaded circle. The letters outside this do not seem to form a legend. The letter A is at the top and bottom of the coin, and others seem to be repeated merely to fill up the space. Frontispiece, fig. 4. Found at Crondale. Unique. This coin, quite worthy of Abbo in point of design, is included in the English series on account of the letter A, which ' is peculiarly and carefully formed, and seems to be intended as a distinguishing mark on the coin. The shape of the letter is not uncommon in the legends of other coins, and occurs on some of those struck by Abbo at Chalons. The same letter, however, formed in the same manner, and used in the same prominent way, occurs on fig. 6 of the frontispiece, and on some of the early English silver coins with Eunic legends described in Hawkins' " Silver Coins of England," 2nd ed., pp. 25-27 ; as well as on other coins not yet attributed (see Ruding's Plates of Sceattae, I. 1, ii. 22). It is true that it is also used as a symbol, perhaps of the town of Aristalium or Herstal, on coins of Pepin-le-bref ; but the coins with Runic legends on which it appears are almost certainly English, and the type and place of finding of this coin make it probable that it ought not to be separated from them. The letter A probably denotes the town or kingdom where the coin was struck, just as on the Merovingian series the town is often denoted by the first one or two letters of its name, and as this same letter was used in the 9th century as the symbol of East Anglia on the pennies of that kingdom. This coin is probably of nearly the same date with that of Abbo, in company with which it was found. 5. Obv. bust in profile to right, in armour, an object like a trident in front of the face, three ornaments pendent from the back of the head. No legend. Rev. a cross moline within a beaded circle, round which is a legend wholly or partly in Runic characters, which has not yet been interpreted. Frontispiece, fig. 5. This figure is taken from an electrotype in the British Museum of a coin found near Canterbury, and published in Num. Ohron., N. S., v. 166. Mr. Akerman considered it to be an Anglo-Saxon prelatical coin, probably of Canterbury, and this attribution is confirmed by the fact that no less than twenty-one coins of this type, though differing from each other in some details, were included in the Crondale hoard described on page 5 ; and still more by their resemblance to our figure 7, which has the inscription Dorovernis Civitas. The bust is evidently copied from a Roman coin. The trident is similar to that on the reverse of Abbo's coin, figure 3, but has an addition to the central prong, which is probably not accidental. & Similar to the last, but having a legend, much clipped, behind the head, a letter apparently in front of the trident, and A at the foot of it. Frontispiece, fig. 6. Of the twenty-one coins of this type found at Crondale, only two had any trace of this legend, and from one of them our engraving is taken. On the other specimen, of which there is a woodcut in The Numismatic Chronicle, N. S., vol. x, p. 172, much less of the legend is visible, but the A is very distinct, and a lower row of five or six beads is shown on the collar. The A, which is of the same shape with that on figure 4, connects these coins with it, and with the silver coins with Runic legends mentioned on p. 6. 7. Obv. bust in profile to right, filleted, in armour. Around it is the legend EVSEBII MONITA. Rev. Cross moline, legend -f DOROVERNIS CIVITAS. Frontispiece, fig. 7. The engraving is from an electrotype, in the British Museum, of a coin in the French national collection. This coin was the first triens ever attributed to the Anglo - Saxons, and was so attributed by M. de Longperier in The Numismatic Journal, vol. ii, p. 232. The bust is copied from Roman coins of the 6th century, and the reverse is similar to that of the coins just described, figures 5 and 6. — 8 Of Eusebius, who was probably, from his name, an eccle- siastic, we know nothing ; but Dorovernis is the name given to Canterbury by Bede, and in the charters of the 7th and 8th centuries, and we know of no other town which can be signified by that name. The weight of this coin is given in The Numismatic Chronicle, vol. ii, p. 204, as 25 grains, which is heavier than other English or French trientes of the 6th and 7th centuries. 8. Obv. bust to right, filleted, a cross in front of face, a smaller one below it. Legend AVDVARLD REGE. Rev. cross resting on a small globe, within a beaded circle. Legend MEALLDENVS. Frontispiece, fig. 8. From the Crondale hoard. Unique. These legends were read by Mr. Haigh, "AudvaridReges," and "Meassgenus." The author, however, believes the above readings to be more correct, and if so the coin may be safely attributed to Mealdunes- berg, or Malmesbury. The name on the obverse of the coin has no resemblance to that of any known king of the situated West Saxons, in which kingdom Malmesbury was ; but it may perhaps be meant for Eadbald, King of Kent, a.d. 616 to 640, whose father Ethelbert held a supremacy over the West Saxons for a considerable time. Eadbald lost this supremacy, but he may have retained it sufficiently long to allow of coins being struck at Malmesbury in his name. The first extant charter to the monastery of Malmes- bury is dated 675, but it existed in a humbler manner for a considerable time previously. Eadbald at the beginning of his reign rejected Christianity, to which he soon after- wards returned. But even if this coin were struck while the king was Pagan, the Bishop or Abbot striking it is not unlikely to have placed on it the crosses which were the emblems of his own religion. The Vicomte de Ponton d'Amecourt possesses a coin of this type, which is said to read pretty distinctly on the reverse AMBALLONDENVS ; but it seems not improbable that it is intended for the same legend as on our coin. Num. Chron. N. S., xii. 72. 9. Obv. head, full-faced, tonsured, a small cross rising from each shoulder, no legend. Rev. cross resting on a small globe, the same as on the last coin, within a plain circle, legend LONDVNIV.