Frazer — On Ancient Coins obtained in Ireland. 



71 



a dealer in Cork, who had purchased them from a countryman. It 

 appears there was no admixture of other coins whatever in this lot, 

 and the circumstances under which they were discovered are unre- 

 corded. 



The types of the four sterlings I now mention are all previously 

 described in one or other of the above communications. 



Two of the sterlings are referred to Kobert III., Count of Flan- 

 ders ; they differ only in the trivial point of the 

 final E of Flandrie being varied. This prince was 

 Eobert de Bethune, son and successor to Guido, who 

 governed from 1305 to 1322. In both his coins the 

 imitation of the type of Edward I.'s coinage is very 

 obvious. One coin of this prince is recorded in Mr. 

 Sainthill's find like those described, and another re- 

 sembling in type the pennies of Balliol and Bruce, with crowned 

 bust in profile. 



The next is a sterling of John II. , Count of Hainault, struck at 

 Maubeuge, one of the principal towns of that 

 district. The Kircudbright find afforded three 

 specimens of this sterling, all differing in minor 

 matters in the reverse inscription. 



John the Second, Count of Hainault, succeeded 

 to his title in 1280, and in 1299 he also became Count 

 of Holland, upon the death of another John, whose 

 history is important as bearing upon the question of the striking for 

 these sterlings, for he had married Adelheid, daughter of our Edward 

 I. of England, and probably this connexion may, as Mr. Hawkins 

 believes, account for the adoption of the English type on the coin of 

 these Continental princes. 



Guido of Namur and Flanders, father of Eobert de Bethune al- 

 ready mentioned, was contemporary and half nephew to this John, 

 Count of Hainault, which explains the appearance of an English type 

 on the coins of his son. 



The last of the four sterlings is strictly a counterfeit. It bears 

 open evidence of being an imitation of Edward's 

 coins, presenting a close copy of the usual obverse, 

 though blundered, perhaps, through design. The 

 reverse is inscribed "Locenbgensis," and does not 

 correspond to any known town or district. Snelling 

 considers pieces of this description are the counter- 

 feits specially named " Lushburgs," in the Statute of 

 Treasons (25 Edward III.) A specimen of this coin, 

 corresponding in every particular with the one now mentioned, was 

 in Mr. Sainthill's collection. 



The second hoard of coins of the First and Second Edward is of 

 trifling importance. They were found some time during the year 1868, 

 in the old Franciscan Abbey of Drumlahan or Drumlane, county Cavan, 

 but under what circumstances I cannot ascertain. There is reason to 



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