A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Centaurs playing on the double flute, the Pegasus, the sea-horse or hippo- 

 campus, the lion, and what may be a seated Venus, can hardly be regarded 

 as indigenous. 



The heads on the obverses, some with beards and some without, 

 may or may not be intended to be portraits of Tasciovanus. The 

 legends on Nos. 7, 8, which together make up TASC, DIAS, show 

 that the latter word has some meaning of its own distinct from the 

 former, but what that meaning may be is matter for conjecture. Why 

 a centaur should have been chosen for the type on the reverse is equally 

 obscure. A centaur blowing a horn is to be seen on some copper coins 

 of Cunobelinus. 



Nos. 10, ii give the name of the king both on the obverse and 

 reverse ; the latter coin is of large module and twice as heavy as 

 those of the ordinary size, so that it was probably current at twice their 

 value. The armed horseman appears on Nos. 14, 15 in much the 

 same style as on the large gold coins in Plate i. There is a general re- 

 semblance between the coins Nos. 16 to 19, with a bearded head on the 

 obverse and a hippocampus on the reverse, the inscription beneath which 

 is sometimes VER or VIR, and sometimes TAS. On one variety the 

 form VIIR occurs, showing that the substitution of II for E, such as 

 frequently occurs in Roman inscriptions and occasionally on Roman 

 coins, such, for instance, as those of Mark Antony, was also in vogue 

 among the engravers of the dies for British coins, thus increasing the 

 probability that these artists were Romans rather than Britons. 



On No. 20 the boar reappears on the reverse similar in character to 

 that on No. 4. The weight however is only 19 grains in this case as 

 against 39^ grains in the other. The value of No. 20 was therefore 

 probably the half of that of No. 4. 



The types of the remaining four coins, Nos. 21 to 24, are essen- 

 tially Verulamian, but they exhibit varieties of the mysterious legend 

 RVFI, RVFS, RVLIS, or RVLA. Whatever may be the correct form, 

 and whether or not a chief with some such name as Rufinus ever 

 reigned at Verulamium, we have evidence of a popular British lady of 

 the name of Rufina having existed at Rome in the days of Martial, 1 who 

 flourished in the latter half of the first century of our era : 



Claudia caeruleis cum sit Rufina Britannis 

 Edita, cur Latiae pectora plebis habet ? 



The small coins, No. 24, weigh but 14 and 10 grains, and seem to 

 represent the value of half the coins of ordinary size. There are there- 

 fore copper coins of Verulamium of at least three denominations, like 

 the penny, halfpenny and farthing of modern times. There are also silver 

 coins probably of two denominations, as well as two denominations of 

 gold coins. The existence of at least six kinds of coins ranging in in- 

 trinsic value from about fifteen shillings down to about a quarter of a 

 farthing is indicative of an extensive and varied commerce such as is 



1 Lib. xi. Epig. 54. 

 242 



