284 The Cricklade Mini. 



several successive monarchs of manufacturing coins. In tlie whole 

 county there were probahly only three other places similarly favoured 

 — Old Sarum, Malmesbury, and Wilton — from which fact we may 

 obtain some idea of the size and importance of Cricklade at that 

 early period. Marlborough and Bradford are alluded to in Ruding's 

 Annals, but the only traces of a mint at Marlborough consist of a 

 penny of William I., bearing the letters MRLERIrEI, and of a 

 few discovered at Beaworth, stamped MIELEB. The only claim 

 of Bradford is a penny of Ethelred II., with the letters B7SRD, 

 which Ruding thinks might possibly be a transposition of BR75D. 



It is scarcely necessary to discuss the right of Crewkerne, in 

 Somersetshire, to the parentage of a few coins which have been 

 sometimes attributed to it, for even Ruding, who is one of the writers 

 in question, speaks very doubtfully of the right of Crewkerne to 

 claim a mint at all, and any one who has carefully investigated the 

 question, and is fully acquainted with the varied appellations by 

 which Cricklade was undoubtedly distinguished, and the abbreviations 

 and contractions of those names, can hardly entertain a doubt res- 

 pecting any of those which will be hereafter enumerated. It may 

 serve to show the extraordinary variation of spelling which then 

 prevailed, if it be mentioned that the writer has met with more 

 than fifty modes of spelling the name, and that almost every form 

 of designation, from CR to CROCDELJCD and CEROILS, is used 

 on these coins to distinguish the town of Cricklade. To this general 

 statement, however, there are a few exceptions, such as CRV, 

 CRVC, and CRVCE, which were the ordinary abbreviations of 

 CRVCERNE, and which are not found on any coin properly attribu- 

 table to Cricklade. 



The Cricklade coins now extant cover a period of about one hun- 

 dred and twenty years, and include the Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Anglo- 

 Saxon Restoration, and Norman times. In the reign of Ethelred 

 there were at least five moneyers at Cricklade : Ethelsige, Godeman, 

 Leofgod, Toca, and Ethestan. In the reign of Canute, there were 

 seven, and one of these spelt his name with such marked diversity 

 that he appears to have been desirous of counting for five. Notwith- 

 standing the Danish invasion, and consequent change of sovereignty. 



