213 



THE NORMAN JERA. 



After the establishment of the Norman dynasty, it might be 

 expected that some change would have taken place in the 

 system of coinage or the description and character of the cur- 

 rency. But it does not appear that any alteration was made. 

 The conqueror " struck money upon the same principles as his 

 Saxon predecessors, retaining the same weight and fineness, 

 and even imitating their types." ^ 



The Domesday Survey, which notices the mints of several 

 other towns, contains only a slight indication of the existence 

 of such an establishment at York. The list of Norman pro- 

 prietors in the city includes the name of " Nigel de Monnevile, 

 who had one mansion of a certain moneyer there." ^ We know, 

 however, from the indisputable testimony of the coins them- 

 selves that the York mint continued to be in operation during 

 the reign of King William I. 



Two large hoards of the silver money of this reign have been 

 found in the city of York. The places of concealment were not 

 far from each other, — between the times of discovery, nearly a 

 century and a half elapsed. In the year 1694 a destructive fire 

 broke out on the north side of the street called High Ousegate, 

 by which several houses standing on the site of those which are 

 now the property of Thomas Gregory Esquire, were so much 

 damaged that in the year 1704 the owner began to rebuild 

 them, and in excavating for the foundations, a small oak box 

 was found deeply imbedded among piles and timbers which had 

 supported much more antient structures than those that were 

 injured by the fire. The box contained about 250 silver coins, 

 and out of fifty or sixty of them examined by Thoresby, three 

 which were struck at York he thus describes in his catalogue 

 of the antiquities of his Museum :^ — 



1. Obv. PiLLEMV REX. The king's head with full face, labcls 

 at each ear hanging down from a diadem of pearls 

 with two small arches over the head.* 



' Hawkins, p. 76. » Domesday Book, fo. 298. 



' Ducatus Lcodiensis, p. 350. Upon all these coins the letter "W is in the Anglo- 

 Saxon character, which nearly resembles the Roman capital P. 

 * Hawkins, PI. xviii. No. 234. 



