THIRD WINTER MEETING.— NOVEMBER nth, 1902. 



COINS AND CHRISTIANITY."— By Mk. S. WEBB. 



Mr. S. Webb, of Dover, who sometime ago de- 

 lighted the members with a lecture on "Coins and 

 Christianity," delivered a further address oa the 

 same subject on November 11, 1902,at the Beanej 

 Institute. Mr. Webb, whose observations were 

 profusely illustrated by means of lantern slides, 

 observed that on his previous appearance he dealt 

 with the primitive history of cuinage, tracing it 

 from the earliest crude examples through the rise 

 of the Romans to the time of their emperors when 

 the nation had become the absolute ruling power 

 of the whole of the civilized world. They glanced 

 at the Christian persecutions under the Caesars 

 and shortly referred to the lives of some of the 

 tyrants who acquiesced in them, then proceeded to 

 a .sketch of Chri-tianity as displayed upon the 

 coinage of the professing emperors, to the time of 

 the severance of the Greek and Koman churches 

 and the fall and disintegration of the Empire. 

 That evening they turned to their own country, 

 the earlier coin? of which had no written history. 

 They were formed of various metals — gold, silver, 

 eopper, and even tin, but from their form and 

 fabric they at once inspired one with the idea that 

 they had been constructed upon a model antece- 

 dent to the Koman domination of our island. 

 Indeed even amongst the roughest executed 

 examples the British so closely followed the coins 

 of Macedonia that they recognised them at once as 

 imitations of Danes of Alexander and Philip, 

 copied no doubt from originals obtainerl through 

 the commercial visits of the Thi^nicians. These 

 British copies were executed with constantly 

 diminishing skill by the native artists, who 

 followed, or tried to follow, a given design with- 

 out understanding it, and in tnis way frequently 

 impiessed upon the desired coin a small portion 

 only of the device, through using a die much 

 larger than the coin intended for circulation. The 

 Koman policy of educating the young hostages 

 they demanded fm the good faith of conquered 

 peoples was a good one, as it tended to civilize the 

 countries when the princes were returned to their 

 homes, and many of the coins of the sons cf 

 Cassivellannus, who opposed so fiercely the 

 invasion of Cssar in the years 00 and 5tt B.C. bear 

 testimony to the lessons learned in exile. i. oins 

 too of Coraius, who favoured Ctesar and was 

 given a subordinate kingdom, exist. Tasciovannua 

 is supposed to have reigned in Britain from B.C. 

 30 to A.D. 3, almost immediately after Ca-sar'e 

 time, and all three of these monarchs struck coins. 

 Having regaid also to the islanders highly 

 advanced condition of civilization in other ways, 

 it is almost impossible, therefore, to believe that 

 twenty years before there was no metal currency, 

 as asserted by the Roman conqueror. 



Cunobelin. son of Tasciovannus, coins are numer- 

 ous ; this prince had been brought up by Augustus 

 in Rome, and he only returned to Britain when 



forty years of age. With the return to their own 

 country of many released Britains as well as many 

 amongst the Koman forces sent to be stationed 

 here, we have no doubt many Christian converts 

 cxme and conquered not as Casar did, for their in- 

 fluence long continued, and certainly as early as 

 about A.D. 150 Christians in Britain must have 

 been sufficiently numerous to have attracted 

 attention, and in all probability there was a 

 church or centre established. An Epistle from 

 the Church of Vienna and Lyons states that after 

 a peiiod of lengthened rest and prosperity the 

 brethren were scattered abroad in a.d. 177 and 

 many came here, and that Christianity in Britain 

 was not confined to a small district only, we 

 learn from Tertullian, who, writing about ad. 208, 

 says that parts of Biitain inaccessible to the 

 Romans, wereChristian. The coinage was directed 

 from Rome until the beginning of the break up of 

 that great empire, when Tetricus seized Gaul and 

 Carausius Britain, and both coined monies with 

 their own etfigy. The latter, on a coin dated 

 A.D, 288, termed himself Emperor, but he interests 

 us more as being the first Admiral commanding a 

 British-built fleet of this country. Several of 

 these coins, one of the rarest of the Koman series, 

 have been dug up at Keculver, Richborough, 

 Dover, and Canterbury. The Romans finally 

 left this country just before the year a.d. 450. 

 All traces of a popular government disappeared 

 and a number ot petty chiefs disputed among 

 themselves, and Christianity almost wholly 

 disappeared, so that long afterwards when 

 Rome sought to renew her contact with us, she 

 found it a heathen country, and a heathen country 

 it was then regarded by the Christians of Ireland 

 and Wales. The lecturer said it was not his 

 intention to pursue the bye-paths of the Druidical 

 worship — the image of life, the sun and heavenly 

 bodies, the bird, the serpent, and signs of temple 

 worship which constantly appeared on the coinage. 

 Pictures of Northumberland Eighth Centuryjcoins 

 were shown of the reigns of Kings Aldf rid a.d. 685 

 to 705, Eadberht 7;J7 to 75S. Alchred 7ti5 to 774, 

 Elfwald 779 to 788. The first Christian king 

 amongst these invaders was Cynegils of the house 

 of Cerdic, who ascended the throne of Mereia in 

 611 within fourteen years of St. Augustine's 

 mission to the neighbouring kingdom. These few 

 years of our history have many landmarks to 

 remember time by, for the terms England and 

 English were made use of early in 616, and from 

 this time written history begins to appear. 

 For some two hundred years afterwards the 

 history of coinage is involved in much obscuiity, 

 but we may readily note one fact of importance, 

 viz., that the old British style of Art disappears, 

 that angels take the place of symbols of Christian- 

 ity for the first time, and that an inscription 

 upon the coin is recognised as a thing of import- 



