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absence by the assertion of Gildas, that the Romans would 
not allow any metal to be struck in the country unless with 
the image of Caesar. Subsequently, however, coins and 
various relics were discovered in different parts of England ; 
and, as the attention of the learned of those days was 
gradually given to these objects, it was then found that 
Early British Coins did exist, and Camden, in 1586, was the 
first to publish figures of fourteen undoubtedly British coins. 
The popular opinion that before the invasion of Julius 
Caesar the ancient Britons had no coinage, but used rings of 
iron and brass, rests on a disputed passage in Caesar's own 
writings ; one reading of which mentions the use of golden 
coins instead of rings, which would seem, from subsequent 
discovery, to be more in accordance with fact. When Caesar 
landed he found the country inhabited by various tribes who 
were not natives of the country, but chiefly immigrants from 
the continent of Gaul, who had driven the original inhabi- 
tants into the interior. This immigration led to a constant 
intercourse between the various tribes of the two countries. 
When we come to consider the character of the early com- 
merce of this country with other nations, and the connection 
which, long before the days of Julius Caesar, existed between 
the people of Britain and those of Gaul, the supposed 
unacquaintance of the former with the use of money is quite 
incredible. There seems to have been a trade in tin, as early 
as 445 B.C., carried on between Britain and Gaul, and thence 
by land through the continent of Gaul. It was therefore 
probable that the Britons would gain a knowledge of coinage 
not very long after the Gauls acquired that knowledge them- 
selves. In the year 600 B.C., a Greek colony was founded at 
Massilia (Marseilles), in Gaul, the civilization of which 
gradually spread into the districts around. It was here the 
original of all our coinage was introduced about 330 B.C., the 
ancient and beautiful Philippus, a diagram of which coin is 
