198 



examples hitherto examined. All the royal stycas in the York 

 hoard belong to the consecutive reigns of Eanred, Ethelred, 

 Redulf and Osbercht, and the ecclesiastical coins are those of 

 the archbishops Vigmund and Vulfhere, with a very small 

 number of Eanbald. The great bulk of the Bolton Percy find 

 consisted of the coins of the same four monarchs, and of the 

 archbishops Vigmund and Vulfhere, there not being one of 

 Eanbald. But among the Bolton Percy coins were two of the 

 rare stycas of Ecgfrid/ and a few doubtful ones supposed to 

 belong to Heardulf.^ 



The history of the Styca ends with the reign of Osbercht, 

 none of any subsequent monarch having hitherto appeared. 

 Of ^lla, who shared the Northumbrian throne with Osbercht 

 during the latter years of his reign, no well authenticated coin 

 is known to exist. It is conjectured that both the York and 

 the Bolton Percy hoards were concealed at the same time, 

 " about the year 867, when the armies of the Danes came from 

 East Anglia into Northumbria, besieged York and having taken 

 the city slew the two Kings Osbercht and -^Ua and laid waste 

 the neighbourhood."^ 



We may now pause to inquire in what part of their territories 

 the Northumbrian monarchs carried on the process of coining 

 the money they issued in such abundance. Upon this point we 



• 1. Obv. -|- EcFRAiDE. Eev. -f- Eadvini, 

 2. Obv. -|" EcFEAiDE. Rev. -\- Vvda. . eo. 



2 Of the York hoard, 365 specimens -were examined by Mr. Roach Smith, 866 by 

 Mr. D. H. Haigh, and 2258 by the late Mr. J. D. Cuff. See Numismatic Chronicle, 

 Vol. VII. p. 99, and Vol. IX. p. 121. For a report, by the learned and venerable 

 curator of antiquities in the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, of his 

 examination of more than 600 coins from the Bolton Percy hoard, see the Transac- 

 tions of the Society, Vol. I. p. 66. The whole number of coins contained in tln'j^ 

 hoard was estimated to amount to between seven and eight thousand, more than 

 three thousand of which were obtained by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. 

 The Society is now in possession of about five thousand stycas formed from the two 

 great hoards of York and Bolton Percy, of which Mr. WeUbeloved has just com- 

 pleted an accurate and minutely descriptive catalogue. 



3 Mr. Wellbeloved's paper, p. 67. Mr. C. R. Smith, Num. Chron., Vol. VII. 

 p. 101. Mr. Adamson suggests that the Hexham coins were concealed at the same 

 period, but Mr. Hawkins thinks it more probable that they were not buried later 

 than the year 844. Hawkins, p. 44. 



