1 66 COINS STRUCK IN DORSET. 



and in the following year 



"The same Sheriff renders an account of 13 shillings 

 and 4 pence for Colbert the moneyer, and of 26 shillings 

 and 8 pence for Lawrence the moneyer." 



These two entries, when read together, go to show that in 

 Dorchester as late as the year 1160 there were two resident 

 moneyers, and, although no specimens of their work are known 

 at the British Museum, it may reasonably be hoped that future 

 finds will supply the deficiency. 



Accordingly, with regard to the coins of the Plantagenet Kings, 

 I should strike out Shaftesbury from Mr. Warne's list and 

 substitute Dorchester as the town from whose mint we may 

 expect to see the currency of Henrv II. 



In 1856 the Rev. T. F. Dymock read a paper before the 

 Numismatic Society of London, in which he drew attention to 

 certain half-crowns of Charles I. that, in his opinion, were 

 struck at Weymouth during 1643-44, while that town was held 

 for the King against the Parliamentary forces, and Mr, Dymock's 

 attributions have never, as far as I am aware, been questioned 

 by later numismatists. His conclusions were based upon (i) 

 the letter W, which can be seen between the feet of the King's 

 horse ; (2) the date 1644 on one of tne types ; and (3) the mint 

 marks. 



These mint marks correspond (fairly accurately, having regard 

 to the itinerant character of the King's mint) with two of the 

 heraldic charges upon the arms and seal granted to the united 

 boroughs of Weymouth and Melcombe in 1592, viz., the lions 

 passant gardant and the castle, or tower. The copper token 

 of Weymouth, issued by the Corporation some 25 years after the 

 siege, also shows the lions upon an escutcheon. 



We have no documetary evidence in support of what is now 

 the accepted origin of these pieces, as the Government records 

 at that date were in the hands of the Parliament, and therefore 

 throw no light upon the doings of Charles' Treasury officials in 

 the country. The Domestic State Papers merely tell us that after 



