430 
instance, being, doubtless, the earliest. One thing, however, 
is certain, that the currency of the British coins was for a 
time limited to the southern and eastern parts of Britain, 
though it afterwards extended as far northwards, along the 
eastern coast, as Yorkshire; and this is quite in accordance with 
the statements of our early historians. In Caesar’s time the 
coast of Britain, opposite to Gaul, had long been occupied 
by Belgic tribes ; and the tribes of the interior are described 
as far more barbarous, and unacquainted with agriculture, 
though possessing flocks and herds. The Silures of South 
Wales, are expressly cited by Solinus* as refusing money and 
employing simply barter. Melaf also relates that the further 
the tribes were from the Continent the more ignorant were 
they of other riches than flocks and territory. 
The immigrants from the Continent, who had driven back 
the earlier inhabitants into the interior, were no doubt con- 
siderably in advance of them in civilization, and were the 
first to introduce the art of coining. From the south-eastern 
parts of Kent the use of coins appears to have extended west- 
ward and northward, though we have no precise means of 
ascertaining the exact course it followed, or of the time it 
took to reach the more distant parts of the country. Follow- 
ing it- westward along the coast, the counties of Sussex and 
Hants first claim our attention, and have some types peculiar 
to themselves. The silver coinage of Surrey and Sussex 
appears to have commenced long after the gold, and was 
formed upon a different model, probably also of Gaulish origin ; 
but no uninscribed types in copper or brass can be assigned 
to these counties. Proceeding westward, we find that the 
prototype with the laureate head, after passing through 
various phases, took root in Dorsetshire, Wilts, and part of 
Hants; but whether the coins were struck by the Belgas 
* Cap. xxxi., sec. alios xxii. 
j' Lib. iii., c. 6. 
