A FURTHER FIND OF EDWARD PENNIES AT ABBEY

By R. H. M. DOLLEY

In November 1956 a small hoard of exactly 100 silver pence of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries was found in the course of Ministry of Works maintenance work on the western range of the monastic buildings at Neath Abbey. An earlier paper has suggested, it is hoped convincingly, that the concealment of the hoard is to be associated with the search for the fugitive Edward II who was arrested at Neath in the late autumn of 1326.1 Early in April 1957 in the course of further works there was discovered a second hoard, this time of 66 coins, concealed in a "putlog" hole of the vault at a slightly lower level and some three feet away from the cache which had contained the original parcel. Again there is no trace of a container, and the archaeological evidence is that the two groups of coins had been con- cealed in separate hiding-places at about the same time. A detailed study of the coins favours this hypothesis, and in the paper that follows it is hoped to demonstrate that the weight of the evidence suggests very strongly that the two parcels had been concealed by the same individual on the same occasion. At an inquest held in June a further verdict of treasure trove was returned. The finders have received the full market value of the hoard which has been acquired by the National Museum of . The 66 coins, again all silver pennies, may be listed as follows. Weights are given in grains, the coins being weighed before any chemical cleaning so that if anything the weights are a trifle on the high side.

ENGLAND

EDWARD I Mint of Berwick-upon-Tweed grains Blunt, N.C. 1931, pp. 28-52, Class IVc 2179 1

Mint of Bristol Fox, N.C. 1917, pp. 279-97, Class Hid 17-82 1 Class 1X6 (with star) 19-82 1

Mint of Bury St. Edmunds (Abbatial) Fox, Class IV e1 20-95 1 Xc 22-39, 20-77, 16-01 3

1 B.N.J., vol. xxviii, part ii (1956), pp. 294-9. 2 The Fox brothers considered these coins to belong to Class IVe though lacking the pellets that are the most obvious characteristics of this variety. They claimed that the irons are the same as those used for undoubted IVe coins of London, and, of course, it is more tidy to have any gap inserted between the Robert de Hadeleie and the mint-signed issues. Mr. Elmore Jones has made the suggestion that it might be desirable to consider the problem afresh, and the present writer would agree that the possibility that the IV« coins "be reclassified as IVc should be investigated. B 7054 N N 556 A Further Find of Edward Pennies at Neath Abbey Mint of Canterbury (King and Archbishop) grains Fox, Class Illg 21-19 IVa-c 20-23 IVrf 21*11 X6 20-75 Xb var. (EDWR. R) 19-47 Xc- 21-82, 21-23, 20-34, 19-95

Mint of Durham (Episcopal) King's Receiver Fox, Class 1X6 (no star on breast) 20-97 1 Xc- 24-35,20-66 2

Mint of London Fox, Class Id 20-85 1 IF 20-66 1 IIIc and d 20-51, 18-89 2 III/ 21-49 1 IHg 21-49 1 IVa-c 20-56, 18-78, 17-82, 17-07 4 IVd 19-98 1 We 21-90 1 VIII 21-12 1 IV6 (no star on breast?) 21-53 1 Xa 2i*ii 1 Xc- 21*85, 21-61, 21*42, 21*30, 21*06, 20*99, 20*89, 20*88, 20-51, 20-28, 17-08 11 Mint of Newcastle upon Tyne Fox, Class 1X6 (no star on breast ?) 20-86 1

Mint of York (Royal) Fox, Class 1X6 (no star on breast) 21-85 1

EDWARD II Mint of Bury St. Edmunds (Abbatial)

Fox, Class XI6 20-81, 20-77, 18-84 3

Mint of Canterbury (King and Archbishop) Fox, Class XI6 21-49, 21-11, 19*52 3 XIII 20-83 1 XV6 21*08 1 Mint of Durham (Episcopal) Sede Vacante ?2

Fox, Class XI« 18*26 1

Mint of London Fox, Class Xla 21-17 1 XI6 21*86,21*83 2 XIV 21*60 1 1 According to Mr. G. L. V. Tatler's classification (B.N.J., vol. XXVIII, part ii (i956)> pp. 288-93) the coin ranks as a "116". 2 The writer is not convinced that this coin does not belong to the last months of Bek s disgrace of 1305-1307. A Further Find of Edward Pennies at Neath Abbey 557 IRELAND

grams 17-90 1

FLANDERS COUNT ROBERT DE BETHUNE Mint of Alost As Chautard no. 12 but R 20-12 1

PORCIEN

COUNT GAUCHER II DE CHATILLON Mint of Florennes As Chautard 250 19-40 1

LORRAINE Temp. DUKE FERRY IV Mint of Tout As Chautard 198 16-94 1

CONTEMPORARY FORGERIES Very crude style and light weight 14-40 1 Good style but apparently base 17-85 1

For the numismatist as such the most significant coins are the con- tinental sterlings of Porcien and Lorraine. Coins of the former are far from rare in English finds, but almost invariably they prove to be from mints of Yves and Neufchateau. The Inventory of British Coin Hoards, indeed, does not include Florennes in its index of mints, though, in fact, it lists a single specimen as occurring in the Tutbury hoard. Hence the occurrence of a second example in a slightly later context is of some importance for the continental as well as the English student. The anonymous sterling of Toul is by no means a rare piece, but its pre- sence in a hoard from Wales beside English coins all to be dated before c. 1325 is yet another nail in the coffin of the theory which sought to associate this issue with the episcopacy of Thomas de Bourlement.1 It is satisfactory, too, that an example of the group which read EC(ce) MONETA NOSTRA should have occurred in a small parcel that is so closely associated with another containing a specimen of the group which read H1C for ECCE. Clearly, little or no chronological signi- ficance attaches to the variety, but, though the Inventory records specimens of one or other grouping as having been present in a number of hoards from the 1320's, this would seem to have been the first occasion when both were represented in the same context. The date of deposit of the new hoard can be fixed with some precision. Included in it are coins of the last three Fox classes, i.e.

1 Cf. N.C. 1914, p. 382, a statement of the facts that seems to have been overlooked by subsequent writers the other side of the Channel. 558 A Further Find of Edward Pennies at Neath Abbey nos. XIII, XIV, and XV, associated with the reign of Edward II, and in this respect the hoard is paralleled exactly by the earlier parcel. It is true that the latest coin in the new find is of Fox Class XV& whereas the earlier discovery also included XVc, but the XV& coin is appreci- ably worn, while, as we shall see, there is a very plausible explanation of the two deposits which suggests that in amassing the second their owner was deliberately eschewing new money of good weight. There is, then, every reason to believe that the two hoards were concealed on the same occasion, and, as the report on the earlier find suggested, there is a very obvious explanation in the general hue and cry which accompanied the hunting down and arrest of Edward of Carnarvon at Neath in the late autumn of 1326. It remains to consider the relation- ship between the two hoards, and in particular it is necessary to decide whether we are, in fact, confronted with two separate parcels of coins or simply with a single hoard from which some coins have trickled down to another level. The respective contents of the two groups can be summarized as follows: English Foreign

b « s to ^ 3 -8 e 0 « -si "o 13 s 5 s £ Si S 0 s CQ O Q >-1 £ < N SQ C«o O« (£, 'S § S S § S o s§oo Hoard A 2 3 4 33 11 I1 39 . . 3 112.. Hoard Bi 2 7 14 44. . 330° 1 I 1 1 ..32

The position as regards the pence amenable to the Fox classification is as follows:

1-1 1-1 >-H 1-1 1-1 1-1 1-1 >-1 * 1-1 1-1 N H H * g * g g H * * g £ £ £ £ H. £ £ £ HH £ £ £ £ £ £ Hoard A 2 9 9 r II 38 11 I 3 9 Hoard B I 1 6 9 1 5 23 IO I 1 1

At first sight there seems to be little essential difference in the com- position of the two parcels, but the following frequency-table of weights presents another picture:

0 OV O* CL C* o> O* 0 CS\ o\ OV c> o* C> o* 0* o\ o\ TF Tf CTI OL o\ RJ- o\ ;T Tt" in •£> vo 00 CO 6\ a\ 0 0 W H IN w M M T—1 M n w M M M M N (S 1 1 1 1 O O O O O O O O 0 O O 0 O O 0 0 9 Y"> O U1 O 1n O >n 0

On average the coins in the second hoard weigh just over i gr. lighter than those in the first parcel, and so consistent a distinction cannot be 559 A Further Find of Edward Pennies at Neath Abbey coincidental. The percentages here set out in tabular form reflect, it is hoped, the essential difference in the composition of the two parcels: Hoard A Hoard B % English, pence ...... 96 90 Coins weighing less than i8'5 gr. . 6 21 Coins weighing more than 22-0 gr.. 8 3 Coins struck before 1300 .... 25 36 Coins struck between 1300 and 1317 . . 62 59 Coins struck after 1317 . . . . 13 5

Nor should we overlook the fact that the second hoard contains both the contemporary forgeries, one of which is of the crudest execution and palpable in all but the poorest of lights. It is hard, too, to accept the hypothesis that in fact 166 coins were concealed, and that it is quite by chance that exactly 100, generally of good weight and style, should have remained in one place, while the remaining 66, generally of poorer quality, should have trickled sideways and downwards to come to rest altogether neatly in a second pocket. It is the belief of the writer of this note that we are dealing with two distinct hoards concealed by the same individual upon the same occasion. The hoard found in 1956 represented his "nest-egg" or "wallet", one hundred coins carefully selected and kept back from general currency, and the new find of 1957 is to be interpreted as his ready money or " purse " from which to meet day-to-day expenditure. The fact that neither hoard appears to have been concealed in a formal container suggests that they were hidden in haste, and the failure to recover what must have been quite a respectable sum is perhaps not without significance in the context of a religious house of which the peace cannot often have been shattered. The fact remains, however, that the two parcels were concealed at the very end of the reign of Edward II, and that at just that period there was a general hue and cry in which culminated in the arrest, actually at Neath itself, of the fugitive king and of a number of his more faithful ad- herents. Pending, therefore, positive evidence to the contrary, and this may well be forthcoming, there must be a presumption that the two hoards from Neath Abbey are in some way connected, albeit in- directly, with the downfall of Edward of Carnarvon. It only remains for the present writer to express his gratitude to Mr. 0. E. Craster, T.D., F.S.A., and Dr. H. N. Savory, F.S.A., for permission to study and to publish a most interesting hoard, and to Mr. F. Elmore Jones and Mr. B. H. I. H. Stewart for assistance in the arrangement and classification of the English coins.