195 



successfully invaded Northumbria, and seated themselves at 

 York, towards the close of the life of Alfred the Great. ^ 

 Mr. Worsaae, in his recent work. The Danes in England, 

 maintains the same opinion as to the York parentage of these 

 coins. He thinks " they were really minted by Scandinavian 

 kings in Northumberland, and in the city of York."^ 



It is still, however, open to doubt whether we have yet 

 arrived at the true origin of the disputed portion of the 

 Cuerdale coins; but if the legend Ebraice Civitas have no 

 reference to the city of York, we must regard it as a very 

 remarkable circumstance that not a single coin of unquestion- 

 able authenticity, struck by a king of Northumbria or an arch- 

 bishop of York, should have been found in the whole of the 

 vast hoard of silver money discovered at Cuerdale.^ 



The only copper money current in Northumbria was the 

 small coin called the Styca/ which was peculiar to the North- 

 umbrian coinage. Neither this, nor any other denomination of 

 copper money,* is known to have been struck in any of the 

 other kingdoms of the Heptarchy. 



The specimens of this interesting coin known to our earlier 



' M. Longpcricr supposes that this Cnut was a son of Ragnax Lodbrog, and he 

 refers to the following passage in one of the Sagas : " Eboracum ubi sedem olim 

 habuisse feruntur Lodbrokii filii." 



2 An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland and Ireland, 

 by J. J. A. "Worsaae, For. F. S. A. London, p. 51. 



^ Mr. Hawkins, whose opinion commands the highest respect, adheres to his 

 original views as to the history of the imccrtain portion of the Cuerdale coins. 

 Many of them, he observes, in some respects resemble French coins, in other 

 respects English coins, and he inclines to believe that they never formed part of 

 tho legitimate currency of either country, but were struck by order of the Danish 

 adventurers who visited both coimtries, remaining a longer or shorter time in each 

 as they were able or as suited their purpose, and who struck coins to supply their 

 immediate wants, imitating the coins of either country according to their fancy, 

 but not copying the originals with accuracy. 



* No better derivation of the word Styca has been suggested, than that of Lye. 

 A. S. Sticcb. Minuta pars. Ruding says it seems to be the same coin that is 

 termed in Domesday Book, minuta, from whence our word mite. Annqli; of the 

 Coinage, Vol. I. p. 111. 



* With tho copper of which the Styca is chiefly composed, a proportion of tin, 

 zinc, or silycr, and sometimes a email quantity of gold or lead, is occasionally foimd. 



