250 



crosses with tlie legend ecgberht and some indistinct charac- 

 ters resembling a r, which numismatists believe to represent 

 the figure, name, and title of Ecgberht, ^ the king's brother, 

 who was seventh archbishop of York, and died in the year 766, 

 having held the see thirty-four years. 



The stycas bearing the name of Eanbald, who was consecrated 

 archbishop of York in the year 797, and was contemporary with 

 the Northumbrian monarchs Heardulf and Eanred; those of 

 Vigmund who succeeded to the see about twenty years after the 

 death of Eanbald, and lived in the reigns of Eanred, JEthelred I., 

 Redulf, and Osbercht ; and those of his immediate successor 

 Vulfhere who died in the year 892,^ show that the York archie- 

 piscopal mint was in operation until nearly the close of the 

 ninth century. 



The coins called Peter-pence^ are said to have been struck at 



' This accomplislied prelate was tlie friend of the venerable Bede ; the founder 

 and first director of the famous school and library at York ; and the patron of the 

 celebrated Alcuin, who after Ecgberht' s death was made superintendent of the 

 school, and librarian. ' See p. 197 ante. 



^ A remarkable discovery of a hoard of these coins was made in the vicinity of 

 Tork about half a century ago. In September 1807 a leaden box, containing about 

 270 silver coins and some fragments of silver ornaments weighing about 21bs., was 

 turned up by the plough in a field near the inn called Lobster-house which is at the 

 eighth milestone on the high road from York to Malton. Tbe field is within the 

 parish of Bossall, which, at the time the treasure was concealed or lost, formed part 

 of the great forest of Galtres. In an account of this discovery, sent by Robert Belt 

 Esquire, of Bossall, to the Gentleman's Magazine for December 1807, it is stated 

 that most of the coins appeared to have been struck at the mint of St. Peter at York, 

 but several of Alfred, Edward the elder, and Athelstan, were mixed with them ; that 

 they had the name of the master of the mint, or of the city of York, on the reverse ; 

 and that they were in perfect preservation, seeming almost fresh from the mint. 

 The magazine gives an engraving of two specimens which are obviously identical 

 with the types No. 135 and No. 137 of plate 10, in Mr. Hawkins's work. The first, 

 Obv. An open hand. Eev. A device having a distant resemblance to the Carolus 

 monogram of some of the Cuerdale coins : and the other, Obv. A hammer. Eev. 

 A bow and arrow. The legends of these types, Mr. Hawkins remarks, are so rude 

 and blundered that it can scarcely be asserted that either Saint Peter, or York, is 

 intended, but upon the whole he considers those on the reverse "to be blundered 

 attempts at Eboraci, " and he thinks " the types are closely linked with those of the 

 coins which undoubtedly bear the name of Saint Peter. " Hawkins, p. 48. We may 

 further gather from Mr. Belt's description, that some of the coins found at BossaU 



