SOMERSETSHIRE COINS. 19 
Domesday; the moneyers at Bath paid an annual rent 
of 100s for the use of the mint in that city in the time 
of William I, and the moneyers at Taunton 50s. This 
may perhaps give some idea of the relative impor- 
tance of those places at that time. 
In 1097, William Rufus gave to God and the 
church of St. Peter of Bath, and to John the Bishop, 
and to his successors, all the city of Bath, for the 
augmentation of the revenue of the see, for the good 
ofthe soul ofhis father King William I, and the souls 
of his mother, of himself, and of his ancestors and suc- 
cessors, together with the mint, &c.* and this grant 
was confirmed in 1100. Wehave coins of William 
IorII and Henry I, from the mint at Bath, but 
nothing of a later date. 
Specimens from the mint at Taunton of the time 
of Stephen are extant, but we have no evidence of 
its having been worked afterwards. Coins were 
struck at Ilchester in the reigns of Henry II and 
Henry III: in the 33rd year of Henry III a writ 
issued for the choice of officers in thismint. "These 
appear to have been the last coins struck in this 
county by royal authority ; it was probably found 
sufficient to give the privilege of coinage to 
the larger towns, and this part of England was 
supplied from the mints of Bristol and Exeter. 
The Exeter mint was disused after the reign of 
Edward I, but from the mint at Bristol issued both 
* See Rud. vol. ii. 210, 
d3 
