English Coins and Tokens, with a Chapter on Greek and Roman Coins

Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt, Barclay V. Head

English Coins and Tokens, with a Chapter on Greek and Roman Coins

Published by Good Press, 2019

[email protected]

EAN 4064066183479

Table of Contents

COINS OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

BODVOC.

CATTI.

COMVX.

VO-CORIO.

ANTEDRIGVS.

INMA, INAM, or INARA.

SVEI.

COMMIVS (?) .

TINC[OMMIVS].

VERICA, or VIRICA.

EPPILLUS.

DVBNOVELLAVNVS.

VOSE[NOS] (?) .

AMMINVS.

CRAB.

ANDOCO[MIVS] (?) .

TASCIOVANVS.

VERVLAMIVM.

TASCIO RICON.

SEGO.

EPATICCVS.

CVNOBELINVS.

ADDEDOMAROS.

THE ICENI.

THE BRIGANTES.

CHANNEL ISLANDS.

COINS OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.

KINGS OF KENT. ÆTHILBERHT I., 725-764.

EGCBERHT, 765-791.

EADBEARHT, 794-798.

CUTHRED, 798-805.

BALDRED, 805-823.

MERCIAN KINGS. OFFA, 757-796.

CYNEFRYTH.

COENVVLF, 794-818.

CEOLVVLF I., 819.

BEORNVVLF, 820-824.

LUDICA or LUDICAN, 824, 825.

WIGLAF, 825-839.

BERTHVVLF, 839-852.

BURGHRED, 852-874.

CEOLVVLF II., 874.

KINGS OF THE EAST ANGLES. BEONNA.

EADVALD, 819-827.

ÆTHELSTAN I., circa 828-837.

ETHELWARD, circa 837-850.

BEORHTRIC, circa 852.

EADMUND, OR ST. EADMUND, 855-870.

ÆTHELSTAN II., 870-890.

KINGS OF NORTHUMBERLAND. ECGFRITH, 670-685.

ALDFRID, 685-705.

EADBERHT, 737-758.

MOLL ETHILWALD, 759-765.

ALCHRED, 765.

ELFWALD, 779-788.

HEARDULF, 794-806.

ELFWALD II., 806-808.

EANRED, 808-840.

ÆTHELRED II., 840-848.

REDULF, 844.

OSBERCHT, 848-867.

ÆLLA, 862-867.

HALFDEN, 875-883.

SITRIC.

CNUT, 883-900.

SIEFRID, circa 900.

ALWALD, 901-905.

SITRIC, circa 921-926.

ERIC, 927-954.

REGNALD, 912-944.

ANLAF.

KINGS OF THE WEST SAXONS, etc. ECGBEORHT.

ETHELWLF, 837-856.

AETHELBEARHT; 856-866.

AETHELRED, 866-871.

AELFRED, 872-901.

EDWEARD THE ELDER, 901-925.

AETHELSTAN, 925-941.

EADMUND, 941-946.

EADRED, 946-955.

EADWIG, 955-959.

SOLE MONARCHS. EADGAR, 959-975.

EADWARD (II.) THE MARTYR, 975-978.

AETHELRED II., 978-1016.

CNUT, 1016-1035.

HAROLD I., 1035-1040.

HARTHACNUT, 1040-1042.

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, 1042-1066.

HAROLD II., 1066.

SAINTS AND ECCLESIASTICS.

ENGLISH COINS. FROM THE CONQUEST DOWN TO THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA.

WILLIAM I. and WILLIAM II. (1066 to 1087, and 1087 to 1100.)

HENRY I. (1100 to 1135.)

STEPHEN. (1135 to 1154.)

HENRY II. (1154 to 1189.)

RICHARD I. (1189 to 1199.)

JOHN. (1199 to 1216.)

HENRY III. (1216 to 1272.)

EDWARD I. (1272 to 1307.)

EDWARD II. (1307 to 1327.)

EDWARD III. (1327 to 1377.)

RICHARD II. (1377 to 1399.)

HENRY IV. (1399 to 1413.)

HENRY V. (1413 to 1422.)

HENRY VI. (1422 to 1461.)

EDWARD IV. (1461 to 1483.)

EDWARD V. (1483.)

RICHARD III. (1483 to 1485.)

HENRY VII. (1485 to 1509.)

HENRY VIII. (1509 to 1547.)

EDWARD VI. (1547 to 1553.)

MARY I. AND PHILIP AND MARY. (1553 to 1558.) Married Philip of Spain, 1554.

ELIZABETH. (1558 to 1603.)

JAMES I. (1603 to 1625.)

CHARLES I. (1625 to 1649) .

COMMONWEALTH. (1649 to 1660.)

PROTECTORATE.—OLIVER CROMWELL. (1653 to 1658.)

CHARLES II. (1660 to 1685.)

JAMES II. (1685 to 1689.)

WILLIAM III. AND MARY II. (1689 to 1702. 1689 to 1694.)

ANNE. (1702 to 1714.)

GEORGE I. (1714 to 1727.)

GEORGE II. (1727 to 1760.)

GEORGE III. (1760 to 1820.)

GEORGE IV. (1820 to 1830.)

WILLIAM IV. (1830 to 1837.)

VICTORIA. (1837.)

TRADERS’ TOKENS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

GREEK AND ROMAN COINS. BY BARCLAY V. HEAD.

§ THE SCIENCE OF NUMISMATICS.

I. GREEK COINS.

§ INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

§ OF THE METALS OF WHICH COINS ARE COMPOSED.

§ OF THE TERMS USED TO DEFINE THE VARIOUS PARTS OF A COIN.

§ OF THE TYPES OF GREEK COINS.

§ THE GODS AS REPRESENTED ON THE COINAGE.

§ THE GODDESSES AS REPRESENTED ON THE COINAGE.

§ SYMBOLS.

§ INSCRIPTIONS.

§ OF THE METHOD OF DATING COINS.

§ OF THE DENOMINATIONS OF GREEK COINS.

§ OF THE ARRANGEMENT OF A CABINET OF GREEK COINS.

§ OF THE PRICES OF GREEK COINS.

II. ROMAN COINS.

§ GENERAL CLASSIFICATION.

§ OF THE ÆS GRAVE.

§ OF THE SILVER CONSULAR COINAGE.

§ OF THE MONEY OF THE EMPIRE.

§ ROMAN MEDALLIONS.

§ HOW TO DISTINGUISH TRUE FROM FALSE COINS.

§ THE COIN CABINET.

COINS OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

Table of Contents

It is not possible to say, with any degree of certainty, at what precise period our ancient British forefathers acquired a knowledge of the art of coining, or into what part of our island that art was first introduced. The probability, however, amounting almost to a certainty, is that the use of money and, consequently, the art of making it, was introduced into Britain from Gaul; and the Kentish coast being the nearest to that country, and receiving friendly and bartering incursions from the Belgic tribes, with whom, doubtless, the natives traded, the natural assumption is that money was known to, and its use appreciated by, the inhabitants of that county long before those of the inland and more northern parts of the island had any knowledge of such a medium as a substitute for ordinary product-barter. Kent may therefore, I apprehend, be looked upon as the district in which money made its first appearance in our country; and, probably, where also it was first made by our Celtic progenitors.

Gothic Crown, of Queen Victoria.

The period which may, with more than ordinary probability; be assigned to the adoption of a home-struck currency among the tribes of our country, is also, naturally, a matter about which only a vague conclusion can be arrived at. The conclusion, however, that has been come to after the most assiduous and searching attention to and consideration of every possible circumstance of locality, analogy of types, and weight, is that that period may be fixed at from a hundred and fifty to two hundred years before the birth of Christ. This, then, for general purposes may be looked upon as the most closely approximate period that the present state of our knowledge has enabled those numismatists who have made this branch of the science their special study to arrive at.

The type of supposed earliest coins of the Britons, derived, there can be no doubt, from those of Gaul, to which they had become accustomed, are uninscribed; those of Gaul having, in turn, originally and long before the days of Julius Cæsar, been derived from the stater of Philippus of Macedon. This has been ably shown and insisted upon by various writers, and to it Mr. Evans, the highest and most enlightened authority upon the subject, has given his full adhesion. The Phocæan colony of Massilia (Marseilles), he says, "appears to have formed the centre from which civilization spread through Gaul, as well as to have been the emporium of its commerce. It was founded about

B.C.

600, and from intercourse with its inhabitants the neighbouring Gauls first learned the usages of civilized life, and after a time became acquainted with the art of coining. The early silver coins of Massilia (and none in gold are known) were occasionally imitated in the surrounding country; but when, about the year

B.C.

356, the gold mines of Crenides (or Philippi) were acquired by Philip II. of Macedon, and worked so as to produce about £250,000 worth of gold annually, the general currency of gold coins, which had before been of very limited extent, became much more extensive, and the stater of Philip—the regale numisma of Horace—became everywhere diffused, and seems at once to have been seized on by the barbarians who came in contact with Greek civilization as an object of imitation. In Gaul this was especially the case, and the whole of the gold coinage of that country may be said to consist of imitations, more or less rude and degenerate, of the Macedonian Philippus."

The types of the Philippus are, on the obverse, a laureated profile bust of Apollo, or young Hercules, and, on the reverse, a charioteer in a biga, and the earliest Gaulish imitations are tolerably closely, though more rudely, rendered. These, naturally, were introduced, and became known, to the Britons, who, as naturally, imitated them, as their neighbours had done the originals. But these imitations were not always servile, but had occasionally additional features, as drapery, a torque round the neck, a bandlet, or what not. The constant reproducing of the dies by different workmen and in different localities also resulted in the original design being at length almost lost, and what now, to the uninitiated, appear a lot of unmeaning pellets and curved strokes, serve only as indications, or faint traces, of the original. Here, upon the coins (p. 5), is an example. First is the stater of Philip of Macedon, with laureated bust and biga; next a British coin on which there is an attempted reproduction of the head on one side, and a rude imitation of horse and driver on the other; and on the third a very degenerate example, on which only a trace of each is discernible. These three, out of hundreds of examples, will serve to show the descent of the type and the changes to which the design has been subjected. Other types shared the same fate, and thus the correct appropriation of Celtic coins becomes a matter of no little difficulty. It is well to remember, as evidenced by these gradual marks of degeneration, that the ruder coins are not, as might well be (and indeed have usually been) supposed, the oldest, but are, in fact, later than others of a higher and more artistic character. In other words, some of these series of coins, instead of showing the onward and gradual progress of art from a first rude attempt up to a highly finished work, serve to exhibit step by step its gradual degeneracy and decline down to ultimate extinction.

Other coins were more or less imitations of Roman coins, but others again have a true native character about them that shows that the Briton, who was an admirable and accomplished worker in metals, was also a clever die-sinker, and had in him considerable power of design.

Celtic coins are usually considered under two classes, the uninscribed and the inscribed—that is, those which are without any inscriptions, and those upon which names or other letters occur—and it seems to be a generally received opinion that whenever an inscribed currency was in use, an uninscribed one had preceded it. The uninscribed are, unfortunately, the most abundant, and therefore, manifestly, it is impossible to judge by them to what princes or tribes they belong. The geographical arrangement—that of classifying the types according to the localities in which they have been found—has therefore, as a general and very convenient rule, to be adopted. Some coins, as the one here engraved from my own collection, have the convex side perfectly plain, while the reverse, concave, side bears a more or less rude representation of a horse.

Figs. A-J, TYPES OF

ANCIENT BRITISH COINS.

"Although we have assigned the date of about 150

B.C.

for the commencement of the British coinage, Mr. Evans remarks, it is hard to say with any degree of certainty in what