FOUND IN THE BED OF THE RIVER WEAR. 119 



legible, but common in this coinage, alludes to the Emperor 

 ,Nerva, who, after a short reign, nominated as his successor 

 Trajan, who thus adopted his name. Nerva ascended the throne 

 at the death of the monster Domitian, before whom was Nero, 

 and Trajan was the immediate predecessor of Hadrian of the 

 Wall, consequently the Eoman Treasure Trove commonly found 

 in this north country abounds in the coins of Trajan, Hadrian, 

 Nero, and Domitian. The reverse is a half-nude figure of Hap- 

 piness (Felicitas), bearing, in the left hand, a cornucopia — in the 

 right, a laurel wreath. No inscription is legible. 



^ There are several reasons why I thus dwell upon the character- 

 istics and history of this otherwise common discovery of a Roman 

 coin of a well-known period. 1. It forms a connecting link in 

 the history of the human remains accompanying it. 2. Eoman 

 remains have been sparingly found in the neighbourhood of 

 Sunderland, and none so significant and well defined as this. 3. 

 It presents certain numismatic peculiarities which, if I am not 

 in error, make it a rare and uncommon specimen. They amount 

 to this — that in all the specimens and engravings to which I 

 have had access, I cannot find any coin or medal bearing exactly 

 the same impression. I can find on separate coins the impres- 

 sions borne by this on both obverse and reverse, but I cannot 

 find them together on the same coin. If the bust of Trajan 

 and the legend be the same, the reverse is certain to differ. If 

 I find a reverse indentical (and I only find one), the head or in- 

 scription is not the same. That in which the bust and inscrip- 

 tion are most exactly rendered, is engraved in a curious book, 

 lent to me by the Eev. Eichard Skipsey, edited by Andreas 

 Morellius, and published at Leipsic in 1695. That which de- 

 scribes a similar obverse, is described in Dr. Bruce's work on the 

 Eoman Wall, as having been found, with many others, in an 

 ancient quarry at Thorngrafton ; but in neither of these are both 

 obverse and reverse identical. 



Inasmuch as Hadrian began his reign a.d. 78, and died a.d. 

 117, this bit of bronze has been resting in the mud and sand of 

 the Wear, for at least seventeen centuries, and looks but little 

 the worse for the immersion. Its situation in immediate juxta- 



