ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



represented, and 174 specimens from this hoard were thus added to the 

 national collection. 



Another hoard of the same period and character came to light 

 during the construction of the railway line from West Croydon through 

 Selhurst and Thornton Heath to Balham. In the manor of Whitehorse 

 and not far from Collier's Water Lane the labourers found, about 2 feet 

 below the surface, a stone chest without a lid. This was soon disposed 

 of, and a mouldering canvas bag recovered from the ruins containing 

 about 250 Anglo-Saxon silver coins, most of which were in fine pre- 

 servation, a few small ingots of silver, part of a silver neck-ornament, 

 and two or three Cufic coins. 1 As at Dorking, pennies were found of 

 Aethelweard and Eadmund, Aethelred, Ceolnoth and Burgred, about 

 two hundred belonging to the last named. The latest are those of 

 Alfred, but all belong to the earliest years of his reign, being of the 

 type of Burgred, and render it almost a certainty that the deposit was 

 made between the years 872 and 875. The latter date is supplied 

 by some coins of Charles the Bald, all of which present the title of 

 king, which he exchanged for that of emperor on the death of his 

 nephew Lothaire in that year. 1 The find also included a penny of Louis 

 le Debonnaire (81440), a son of Charlemagne, and some fragments of 

 dinars struck by Haroun-al-Raschid, the famous Khalif of Bagdad (786- 

 809). These have little bearing on the date of the hoard, but are 

 interesting as showing the extent of European commerce in those days ; 

 they may have been brought to England by the merchants of Marseilles, 

 who trafficked with the east, or by the overland route through Russia to 

 the Baltic. The ingots and portions of silver ornaments seem to have 

 been destined for use as money rather than for the melting-pot, as some 

 at least are almost exact multiples of the penny. 8 



1 J. Corbet Anderson, Croydon, p. 115; see following pages for illustrations of the coins, bag and 

 fragments. 



* Numismatic Chronicle, new ser. ii. 303. 3 Ibid, new ser. vi. 233. 



273 



