Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 227 



be regarded as peculiarly Irish ; and that Mr. Lindsay could find no resem- 

 blance between this coin and any of those of the Anglo-Norman kings, we 

 have sufficient evidence in the fact that he publishes it without a comment. 

 In like manner, if we compare the bracteate pieces, found in the Tower of 

 Kildare, with the coins of the Saxon and Anglo-Norman kings, we shall find 

 that they bear the greatest resemblance, in two instances, at least, to coins of Ead- 

 wald and the Mercian kings, Offa and Coenwulf, as in the annexed examples : 



and this appears to me to point to the true date of those pieces. I am aware, in- 

 deed, that an objection may be made to the antiquity I thus assign to them, 

 from the double cross which appears upon one of them, inasmuch as the double 

 cross is not found on the Anglo-Saxon coins of the heptarchic Kings, nor in- 

 deed on those of the sole monarchs earlier than the time of Ethelred II. But, 

 as I have already shown that the type on some of the coins of Ethelred is itself 

 most probably derived from Ireland, no conclusion, I think, can be fairly grounded 

 on this circumstance. There is scarcely a variety of cross, which is not to be 

 found as a typical ornament in our most ancient manuscripts, even in those of 

 the sixth century, as well as on our ancient sepulchral monuments anterior to 

 the tenth ; and among these a double cross is of the most common occurrence ; 

 it is, therefore, but natural to expect that the Irish would use on their coins 

 the same variety of crosses as they employed on their sepulchral and other or- 

 namented monuments. 



In fine, it appears to me that the conclusion so generally adopted, that the 

 Irish owed the use of minted money to the Danes, is wholly gratuitous, and 

 rests on no firmer basis than do those opinions, which assign the erection of our 

 ancient churches, stone crosses, and other monuments, to that people, opinions, 

 which I shall prove to be utterly erroneous. It is quite certain that the 

 Danes minted money in Ireland, not indeed, as is supposed, in the ninth century, 

 but in the tenth and eleventh ; however, as they do not appear to have pre- 



2 G 2 



