Notes on Archaeology, 177 



possession :— " On the 26th October, 1856, some workmen engaged in draining 

 a piece of ground, a little to the south of Mere, which is intended for a new 

 cemetery, came upon a vase of coarse pottery. The vase was unfortunately 

 broken by their tools, and though I have seen some fragments I have been 

 unable to make out even its shape. It contained Roman denarii to the number 

 of about two hundred and seventy, as near as I can ascertain. The following 

 memoranda contains a catalogue and description of two hundred and twenty 

 forwarded to the office of the Duchy of Cornwall, besides seven others that 

 had been offered for sale or were in the hands of persons in the neighbourhood. 

 Those coins which have passed through my hands are for the most part much 

 worn, coins of the latest date (as might be supposed) the least so ; scarcely one, 

 except the very latest, would be called by collectors ' very fine.' There are some 

 interesting reverses, but on the whole none of the coins appear to be of any great 

 value. The most remarkable thing concerning the hoard is that there are com- 

 paratively speaking very few duplicates, the reverses almost all vary even where 

 the type is somewhat the same. The earliest coin dates A.D. 65 ; the latest, 

 A.D. 166 — thus covering one hundred years. The following is a summary of 

 them : — Nero, one ; Galba, one ; YiteUius, one ; Vespasian, seventeen ; Titus, 

 three; Domitian, twentj'-one ; Nerva, seven ; Trajan, fifty-six; Hadrian, sixty; 

 Sabina, eight; iElius (Csesar), two; M. Antoninus, twenty-eight; Faustina, 

 Sen., ten ; M. Aurelius. thirteen ; Faustina, Jun., four." The catalogue which 

 follows contains a full and accurate description of the one hundred and seventy- 

 four different varieties of which the coins consisted. 



T. H. Bakee, 



Mere Dowh» 



Find of Coins at Bradenstoke. 



Several Roman coins have been lately found near the abbey, amongst them 

 third brass coins of Gallienus {cir. 253 A.D.), Constantius II. (317 — 361), and 

 Valentinian I. (364 A.D.). Also some of the well-known Nuremberg tokens — 

 one of them with the device of a man seated at a table apparently using the 

 tokens in counting — a purpose for which some authorities believe these tokens 

 were chiefly used. 



E. C. Teepplin. 



Romano-British Pit at Gorton, Hilmarton. 



In January, 1880, as some labourers were cutting a deep drain from the iron 

 stone quarry immediately outside the rickyard of Gorton Farm, they came upon 



