5 COIN. 



applicable to other places ill the Roman empire where mints were 

 established, and therefore do not afford a proof quite so conclusive as 

 is wanted. We give a representation of one found in London. The 



Coin, with seated figure of Britannia. 



coins of Carausius and AUectus, the seat of whose empire was in 

 Britain, have a strong claim to be considered as the production of 

 British mints. Those who wish to see under one view the ' Coins of 

 the Romans relating to Britain,' will find the fullest information in a 

 little volume published under that title by Mr. John Yonge Akerman, 

 12mo., London, 1844 ; much information will also be found respecting 

 the Roman coins found in various parts of London, in Mr. Roach 

 Smith's ' Illustrations of Roman London,' 4to, 1859. 



MODERN Coras are those which have been struck since the fall of 

 the Western Empire ; but it is impossible, in the space to which the 

 present article is necessarily confined, to enter into minute details 

 respecting the series of coins in each country. We shall be brief in 

 our notices of the greater part, that we may devote a larger space to 

 the coins of England. 



The aeries of the coins of Italy under the Ostrogoths began soon 

 after the year 480 of the Christian era. The French series com- 

 mences with Clovi, A.D. 490. That of Spain with Liuva, Prince 

 of the Visigoths, soon after the middle of the 6th century, or about 

 A.D. 567. The states of Germany appear to have struck money very 

 shortly after the age of Charlemagne; as well as the independent 

 Lombard cities, and the Neapolitans. The Papal series of money 

 begins with Pope Hadrian I., A.D. 772. Denmark has coins of an early 

 date, but few of them are intelligible before the time of Canute ; con- 

 temporary with whose date are the coins of the petty kings of Ireland. 

 In Sweden coinage is said to have begun under Biomo, A.D. 818 ; and 

 in Norway with Olave or Olaf, A.D. 1066. The Russian coinage is 

 of a later date than the other coinages of Europe. Of Scotland pennies 

 exist ascribed to Alexander I., A.D. 1107 : those of William the Lion, 

 A.D. 1165, are numerous. Pennies were the earliest coins in most of 

 the European kingdoms, and a prevailing device upon them was a 



The Cma of England form the most complete modern series extant. 

 At what time the circulation of the Roman money ceased, we are 

 ignorant : but Sceatte (from the Anglo-Saxon rcear, shot, money) 

 are known of the early kings of Kent, some of which must have been 

 struck within the 6th century ; and there are others so similar to them 

 in type as to justify their appropriation to the same people, but which 

 from their symbols were evidently coined before their conversion to 

 Christianity. They are too rude generally to admit of description, are 

 of sih-er, and found of different weights, from seven grains and a half 

 troy to twenty and upwards : their most common weight is from fifteen 

 to nineteen grains. Several plates of these coins are engraved in 

 Ruding ; they appear to have been current chiefly from the year 500 

 to 700. A sceatta of Ethelbert I. of Kent is the earliest Saxon coin 

 which can be appropriated : he reigned from A.D. 561 to 616. Sceattse 

 also are the only coins which have hitherto been discovered of Egbert, 

 king of Kent, who reigned from 665 to 674. In poult of antiquity the 



Coin of Egbert. 



penny succeeds ; the name of which first appears in the laws of Ina, 

 king of the West Saxons, who began his reign in 688. The word has 

 had numerous etymologies ; but that from pendo, ti weigh, seems the 

 most reasonable : it was then, as it still is, the 240th part of the num- 

 mary pound. The half of the penny, called helphnie or half )>eiuje, and 

 the fourth part or peopftunj, farthing, are mentioned in the Saxon 

 gospels ; and a Saxon halfpenny of Edward the Elder is said to exist 

 in the Bodleian collection at Oxford : but we know little more of the 

 etrlitet divisions of the penny. The com ascribed as a penny to Ethel- 

 bert II. king of Kent, between 749 and 760, with Romulus and Remus 

 on the reverse, is beyond doubt a forgery. As to the rest of the king- 



COIN. 



doms of the Heptarchy, no coins have yet been discovered of the South 

 Saxon monarchs. Of the West Saxon kings, we have coins of Athel- 

 heard, A.D. 726; and of Beorhtric, who came to the throne in 784. 

 Mercia seems to have been the most wealthy kingdom, and has a large 

 series. It begins with Eadvald, who ascended the throne in 716, 

 followed by Offa (whose queen Cenethreth or Quindred also enjoyed 

 the privilege of coining), Egbert, Coenvulf, Ciolvulf I., Beornwulf, 

 Ludican, Wiglaf, Berhtulf , Burgred, and Ciolvulf II., with whose short 

 reign the kingdom expired. The coins of the East Angles begin with 

 Beonna, about the year 690; but in consequence of the temporary 

 annexation of the kingdom to that of Mercia, we have but few coins of 

 succeeding monarchs : those only of jEthelweard, 760, Edmund the 

 Martyr, 855, and Ethelstan, 860, are known. The kingdom of North- 

 umberland has this remarkable peculiarity belonging to its coinage, 

 that from its mints issued, as far as is yet discovered, the only brass 

 coins which were struck by the Anglo-Saxons. The earliest specimen 

 hitherto known is of the reign of Egfrith, who ascended the throne in 

 670 : it differs from the stycas of succeeding mouarchs in the omission 

 of the moneyer's name on the reverse. Of sixteen succeeding monarchs 

 (whose reigns occupy more than a hundred and thirty years), no coins 

 have as yet occurred. The first that appears was struck by Eanred, 

 who began to reign in the year 808. One silver penny of Eanred is 

 known. His stycas are of various rude types, without any representa- 

 tion of the monarch, but with a legend similar to that on his silver 

 coin, excepting that the moneyer's name stands on the reverse, without 

 any addition. Other stycas occur of Ethelred his son 840, of Redulf, 

 and of Osbert, whose reign began in 849. After his reigu stycas seem 

 to have fallen into disuse, at least none of a later period have yet been 

 found. Stycas were also struck in the Saxon times by the archbishops 

 of York : Ruding has engraved those of the archbishops Eanbald II., 

 Vigmund, and Wulphere. One coin of Regnald, who was expelled the 

 kingdom of Northumberland in 944, is known ; and one of Anlaf, 

 which has upon its reverse the Danish raven : these are pennies. 

 Pennies also are known of Eric. At the beginning of the 9th century, 

 Ecgbeorht or Egbert ascended the throne of the West Saxon kingdom ; 

 and in the course of his long reign brought under his dominion nearly 

 the whole of the Heptarchic states ; he is therefore commonly con- 

 sidered as the first sole monarch of England, notwithstanding those 

 states were not completely united in one sovereignty until the reign of 

 Edgar. On his coins he is usually styled ECGBEORHT REX, and some- 

 times the word SAXON VH is added in a monogram within the inner 

 circle of the obverse : some of his coins have a rude representation of 

 his head, and some are without it. From Egbert's time, with very few 

 exceptions, the series of English pennies is complete ; indeed for many 

 hundred years the penny was the chief coin in circulation. Of the 

 Saxon pennies those of Alfred bear a considerable price ; on some he 

 is called AELBRED REX, on others ALFRED. Edward the Elder has 

 Saxon buildings on the reverses of several of his coins ; and on one of 

 Athelstan's is a building intended for York Cathedral. The coins of 

 Canute and of Edward the Confessor are among the most common of 

 the Saxon series ; those of Hardicnut are rare. English coins of Canute 

 have frequently, and of Hardicnut in a few instances, been found in 

 Denmark. Numerous coins of Canute and Ethelred II. have also been 

 found in Ireland. 



The Archbishops of Canterbury, during a part of the Anglo-Saxon 

 period, also coined money. Pennies exist of Jaenberht, Archbishop of 

 Canterbury from 763 to 790; of JEthilheard, who died in 803; of 

 Vulf red, who succeeded in that year ; of Ceolnoth, who died in 870 ; 

 of Ethered, 871 ; and of Plegmund, who sat from 891 to 923. In 

 Athelstan's laws two moneyers are allowed to the Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, but no archiepiscopal coins of that reign are known, nor indeed 

 any until the time of Archbishop Bourchier, a space of several hundred 

 years. Of Harold II.'s pennies there are three distinct types; two 

 with the head looking to the left, the third, which is of very uncommon 

 occurrence, with the head to the right ; all have the word PAX in the 

 centre of the reverse. Of the coins of William I. and II. the best 

 account, with engravings of all the types, will be found in the ' Archseo- 

 logia,' vol. xxvi. p. 1 25. Of the types there exhibited, those which 

 bear the strongest resemblance to the coins of the Confessor and Harold 

 are ascribed with great probability to the first William ; those which 

 most resemble Henry I.'s coins to William II. The coins which pre- 

 sent a sceptre on each side of the king's head are universally ascribed to 

 the Conqueror ; those with two stars to William Ruf us, the same orna- 

 ment occurring upon his great seal. Most of them read PILLEM, PILKMV, 

 or PILLEMVS REX A, AN, ANGLO, or ANQi.OR ; the P in Pillem being in 

 reality the Saxon V (W). Of Henry I.'s pennies the types are a 

 various as upon those of any monarch of the English series : the 

 reverses bear the name of the mint and moneyer. This had been 

 the Saxon practice, and it continued till the reign of Edward I. Our 

 historians say that Henry I. coined halfpence and farthings, but none 

 such are known in our cabinets. Through the Norman times, and cer- 

 tainly in the reign of Edward the Confessor, halves and quarters of the 

 penny, regularly and nicely cut, to go as halfpence and farthings, occur 

 almost whenever parcels of the coins of those periods are discovered. 

 The troubles of Stephen's reign will account for the wretched state in 

 which the pennies of that king occur : these, with what are certainly 

 the earliest pennies of Henry II., are among the worst of the English 

 coins in point of mintage. The barons of this reigu are reputed by our 



