BRITISH AND ROMANO-BRITISH COINS. 59 



Dorset and Wilts type in Sir John's classification of the general 

 series. 



We learn from Julius Caesar that the inhabitants of this island 

 before the first Roman invasion used gold and brass money, but 

 the early British coinage was derived from Greece rather than 

 from Rome, and it is noticeable that the majority of the silver 

 coins of this district are thick and slightly concave on one side, 

 thus resembling in fabric their Greek prototypes. 



The native engravers of the dies for this uninscribed currency 

 borrowed the design from their Gallic contemporaries, who had 

 in turn copied from imitations of a gold coin of Philip II. of 

 Macedon ; hence it is that successive engravers, departing 

 further and further from the original type, produced what is 

 little better than an unmeaning and barbarous medley of lines, 

 dots, and crescents, which do duty for the laureate head and the 

 horses of the Macedonian stater. Indeed, were it not for the 

 existence of intermediate and less degraded types found 

 elsewhere it would be difficult to establish any connection 

 between the two ends of the numismatic chain. The specimens 

 that I am able to exhibit are of silver and bronze only, and were 

 discovered chiefly at or near Hod Hill ; one of silver was dug up 

 in Dorchester, another of bronze near Bridport. The weights 

 of the four silver pieces vary from 80 to 46 grains troy, and they 

 contain an appreciable quantity of some alloy. [Plate No. i.] 



Coins of the local type in gold occur but very rarely ; the only 

 examples that I have seen were in the late Mr. Durden's cabinet, 

 and were found in East Dorset. 



Sir J. Evans suggested B.C. 200 to 150 as the approximate 

 date when this coinage was introduced, the Dorset type being 

 one of the latest issues. The date of withdrawal is equally 

 uncertain, but these rude pieces continued in circulation after 

 the second Roman invasion, as I am aware of one instance in 

 which early British silver was found in conjunction with the brass 

 of Nero; accordingly it may be assumed that the unlettered 

 coinage of the Durotriges survived here until at least A.D. 50-60, 

 and perhaps a little later. 



