134 



SIR JOHN EVANS — ON AN ANCIENT BRITISH COIN. 



There can, therefore, be little doubt that this coin was struck 

 at some place considerably to the north of Hertfordshii'e. Its 

 extremely degenerate types, and its light weight, 81^ grains — 

 precisely the same as that of the uniface coin, Ev., pi. xvii, 

 fig. 11 — assign the coin to a very late place in the ancient British 

 coinage, and not improbably to a time when the southern part of 

 this island was already under Roman rule. Coins of this class 

 have indeed been found associated with Eoman denarii struck but 

 a year or two before the invasion of Claudius in a.d. 43. 



It is useless to speculate on the way in which this northern 

 coin found its way into Hertfordshire. It was, however, dug up 

 not far from what seems to be a Roman road, leading fi'om Watford 

 to Verulamium, and there is a strong temptation to suggest that 

 it may have been part of the spoil of some Roman soldier 

 returning from the conquest of the territory of the Brigantes by 

 Petilius Cerealis in a.d. 7 1 . 



[Reprinted from the 'Numismatic Chronicle,' 3rd series, vol. xvi, p. 183.] 



