Part 1

ENGLISH COINS AND TOKENS.

BY LLEWELLYNN JEWITT, F.S.A.,

_Author of “Half-Hours among some English Antiquities;” “Grave Mounds and their Contents;” “The Ceramic Art in Great Britain;” “Corporation Plate and Insignia of Office;” “The Stately Homes of England,” etc., etc._

WITH A Chapter on Greek and Roman Coins,

BY BARCLAY V. HEAD, M.R.A.S., ETC.,

_Assistant Keeper of Coins, British Museum; Corresponding Member of the Imperial German Archæological Institute_.

LONDON: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LE BAS & LOWREY, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1886.

COINS OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

It is not possible to say, with any degree of certainty, at what precise period our ancient British forefathers acquired a knowledge of the art of coining, or into what part of our island that art was first introduced. The probability, however, amounting almost to a certainty, is that the use of money and, consequently, the art of making it, was introduced into Britain from Gaul; and the Kentish coast being the nearest to that country, and receiving friendly and bartering incursions from the Belgic tribes, with whom, doubtless, the natives traded, the natural assumption is that money was known to, and its use appreciated by, the inhabitants of that county long before those of the inland and more northern parts of the island had any knowledge of such a medium as a substitute for ordinary product-barter. Kent may therefore, I apprehend, be looked upon as the district in which money made its first appearance in our country; and, probably, where also it was first made by our Celtic progenitors.

The period which may, with more than ordinary probability; be assigned to the adoption of a home-struck currency among the tribes of our country, is also, naturally, a matter about which only a vague conclusion can be arrived at. The conclusion, however, that has been come to after the most assiduous and searching attention to and consideration of every possible circumstance of locality, analogy of types, and weight, is that that period may be fixed at from a hundred and fifty to two hundred years before the birth of Christ. This, then, for general purposes may be looked upon as the most closely approximate period that the present state of our knowledge has enabled those numismatists who have made this branch of the science their special study to arrive at.

The type of supposed earliest coins of the Britons, derived, there can be no doubt, from those of Gaul, to which they had become accustomed, are uninscribed; those of Gaul having, in turn, originally and long before the days of Julius Cæsar, been derived from the _stater_ of Philippus of Macedon. This has been ably shown and insisted upon by various writers, and to it Mr. Evans, the highest and most enlightened authority upon the subject, has given his full adhesion. The Phocæan colony of Massilia (Marseilles), he says, “appears to have formed the centre from which civilization spread through Gaul, as well as to have been the emporium of its commerce. It was founded about B.C. 600, and from intercourse with its inhabitants the neighbouring Gauls first learned the usages of civilized life, and after a time became acquainted with the art of coining. The early silver coins of Massilia (and none in gold are known) were occasionally imitated in the surrounding country; but when, about the year B.C. 356, the gold mines of Crenides (or Philippi) were acquired by Philip II. of Macedon, and worked so as to produce about £250,000 worth of gold annually, the general currency of gold coins, which had before been of very limited extent, became much more extensive, and the _stater_ of Philip--the _regale numisma_ of Horace--became everywhere diffused, and seems at once to have been seized on by the barbarians who came in contact with Greek civilization as an object of imitation. In Gaul this was especially the case, and the whole of the gold coinage of that country may be said to consist of imitations, more or less rude and degenerate, of the Macedonian Philippus.”

The types of the Philippus are, on the obverse, a laureated profile bust of Apollo, or young Hercules, and, on the reverse, a charioteer in a biga, and the earliest Gaulish imitations are tolerably closely, though more rudely, rendered. These, naturally, were introduced, and became known, to the Britons, who, as naturally, imitated them, as their neighbours had done the originals. But these imitations were not always servile, but had occasionally additional features, as drapery, a torque round the neck, a bandlet, or what not. The constant reproducing of the dies by different workmen and in different localities also resulted in the original design being at length almost lost, and what now, to the uninitiated, appear a lot of unmeaning pellets and curved strokes, serve only as indications, or faint traces, of the original. Here, upon the coins (p. 5), is an example. First is the _stater_ of Philip of Macedon, with laureated bust and biga; next a British coin on which there is an attempted reproduction of the head on one side, and a rude imitation of horse and driver on the other; and on the third a very degenerate example, on which only a trace of each is discernible. These three, out of hundreds of examples, will serve to show the descent of the type and the changes to which the design has been subjected. Other types shared the same fate, and thus the correct appropriation of Celtic coins becomes a matter of no little difficulty. It is well to remember, as evidenced by these gradual marks of degeneration, that the ruder coins are not, as might well be (and indeed have usually been) supposed, the oldest, but are, in fact, later than others of a higher and more artistic character. In other words, some of these series of coins, instead of showing the onward and gradual progress of art from a first rude attempt up to a highly finished work, serve to exhibit step by step its gradual degeneracy and decline down to ultimate extinction.

Other coins were more or less imitations of Roman coins, but others again have a true native character about them that shows that the Briton, who was an admirable and accomplished worker in metals, was also a clever die-sinker, and had in him considerable power of design.

Celtic coins are usually considered under two classes, the uninscribed and the inscribed--that is, those which are without any inscriptions, and those upon which names or other letters occur--and it seems to be a generally received opinion that whenever an inscribed currency was in use, an uninscribed one had preceded it. The uninscribed are, unfortunately, the most abundant, and therefore, manifestly, it is impossible to judge by them to what princes or tribes they belong. The geographical arrangement--that of classifying the types according to the localities in which they have been found--has therefore, as a general and very convenient rule, to be adopted. Some coins, as the one here engraved from my own collection, have the convex side perfectly plain, while the reverse, concave, side bears a more or less rude representation of a horse.

“Although we have assigned the date of about 150 B.C. for the commencement of the British coinage,” Mr. Evans remarks, “it is hard to say with any degree of certainty in what part of the country it actually commenced. The study of this class of coins is to some extent like that of geology: we have no written testimony on which to fall back, and the annals of the past have to be reconstructed from the evidence of contemporary yet dumb witnesses disinterred from the soil. But the numismatist has none of those aids which the geologist derives from the order of superposition, and the mineral characters of the rocks in which his fossils are preserved; and, in the case of uninscribed coins, has nothing but the type and its geographical range on which to found any conclusion, unless, as in some rare instances it happens, the coins are associated with others of more certain date. The mere fact of finding a single coin of a certain class in a certain locality proves nothing; but when a considerable number of coins of much the same type are found at different times in places all within a certain district, the proof becomes almost conclusive that they were originally struck within that district. And this holds true even with gold coins, which, from their greater value and relative portability, have, as a rule, a much wider range than those of silver or copper.”

The districts into which it has been found most convenient (and undoubtedly as presenting an arrangement that may be looked upon as practically correct) to classify the inscribed coins are as follows:--

I.--COINS OF THE WESTERN DISTRICT, or country of the Dobuni, comprising the present counties of Somerset, Wilts, Gloucester, and part of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and in which are classed the coins of--

BODVOC of uncertain date. CATTI " " COMVX " " VO-CORIO-AD (?) " " ANTEDRIGVS after 41 A.D. SVEI uncertain date. INARA (?)

II.--SOUTH-EASTERN DISTRICT, or country of the Belgæ, Regni, and Atrebatii, comprising the present counties of Hampshire, Sussex, and West Surrey, and in which are classed the coins of--

COMMIVS the earliest inscribed coin, 55 B.C. COMMI F[IL] TINC[OMMIVS] son of Commius. VERICA or VIRICA son of Commius. The first coin with REX inscribed.

III.--KENTISH DISTRICT, or country of the Cantii, comprising the present counties of Kent and East Surrey, and in which are classed the coins of--

EPPILLVS son of Commivs. DVBNOVELLAVNVS _temp._ Augusti. VOSE[NOS] of uncertain date. AMMINVS " " CRAB " "

IV.--The CENTRAL DISTRICT, or country of the Catyeuchlani and Trinobantes, comprising the present counties of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Essex, Northamptonshire, and parts of Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and Oxfordshire, and in which are included the coins of--

ANDOCO[MIVS] contemporary with Tasciovanus. TASCIOVANVS 30 B.C., who died 5 A.D. VERULAMIUM which was the chief seat of Tasciovanus’s government. RUFI or RVLI } DIAS } RICON } contemporary, but unknown. SEGO } EPATICVS son of Tasciovanus. CVNOBELINVS son of Tasciovanus, _circa_ 40 A.D. And several others whose legends are undecipherable.

V.--The EASTERN DISTRICT, or country of the Iceni, comprising the present counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and parts of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, and in which are classed the coins of--

ADDEDOMARVS, supposed to have been contemporary with Cunobelinus.

ECEN } SAEMV-- } ACSV } all unknown ANTED } CAV (?) or CAM } DVRO }

VI.--The YORKSHIRE DISTRICT, or country of the Brigantes, comprising Yorkshire and parts of the adjacent counties to the south, and in which are included the coins of--

VOLISIOS. DVMNOCOVEROS. DVMN--TIGIP--SENO (?) VEP-- CORF. AVN T-- IISVPSV.

The parts of the country inhabited at one time or other by various tribes may be tabulated as follows, and will be useful to students of that early period of national history; the present names of counties, as the most convenient, are given in the list. The tribes seem to have been the--

ANCALITES, an early tribe who inhabited part of Berkshire.

ATREBATES, the main portion of Berkshire.

ATTACOTTI, a fierce Scottish tribe.

BELGÆ, the country from the southern coast to the Bristol Channel, including Hants, Wilts, and Somerset.

BIBROCI, an early tribe, part of Berks, and Hants, Surrey, Sussex, and the east of Kent.

BRIGANTES, the country from the Mersey and Humber to Scotland.

CIMBRI, the borders of Devonshire.

CANGI, North Wales, on the coast of the Irish Sea.

CANTII, Kent, which in Cæsar’s time was divided among four chiefs or kings.

CASSI, Hertfordshire.

CATYEUCHLANI, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Hertfordshire.

CŒNIMAGNI, Suffolk.

CORITANI, or CORITAVI, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Rutland.

CORNABII, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, and part of Flintshire.

DUMNONII, or DAMNONII, Cornwall and Devonshire.

DEMETÆ, Caermarthenshire, Cardiganshire, and Pembrokeshire.

DOBUNI, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

DUROTRIGES, Dorsetshire.

GADENI, Cumberland and part of Northumberland; and Selkirk, and adjacent portions of Scotland.

HEDUI, Somersetshire.

ICENI, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire.

JUGANTES, coast of the Irish Sea.

MORINI, Dorsetshire.

ORDOVICES, Flint, Denbigh, Montgomery, Merioneth, Caernarvon, and Anglesea.

OTADINI, the land from the Tyne to the Forth. PARISII, the south-east of Yorkshire.

REGNI, Surrey and Sussex.

REMI, supposed to be identical with the Bibroci.

SEGONTIACI, the greater part of Hampshire, and Berkshire.

SENONES, a portion of Hampshire.

SESTUNTII, Westmoreland and Cumberland.

SILURES, Herefordshire, Radnorshire, Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire, and Glamorganshire.

TRINOBANTES, Middlesex and Essex.

VOLUNTII, Lancashire.

* * * * *

I now proceed to enumerate some of the inscribed coins referred to under the geographical arrangement already given.

BODVOC.

Coins bearing the word BODVOC, BODVO, or ODVOC, have usually, but erroneously, been ascribed to Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni. As is remarked by Evans, “there is no ground for supposing that any coins were struck by Boadicea, who never seems to have exercised the queenly power, unless as the leader of a short-lived revolt, and whose chief complaint against the Romans was, that the kingdom left by her husband Prasutagus, to which possibly she may have hoped to succeed, was overrun and pillaged by their troops, she herself scourged, and her daughters put to shame.” Moreover, no coins of BODVOC have ever been found in the Icenian territory, but are confined to the opposite side of the country; and are evidently of a date anterior to the revolt of Boadicea. The usual type has on the _obverse_ simply the word BODVOC in large letters across the field; _reverse_, a horse of more or less disjointed character, with chariot-wheel and other details. One example has, however, on the _obverse_ a profile bust to the left, and letters BODVO in front of the face; and _reverse_, a horse, etc.

CATTI.

A convex coin. _Obverse_, an object which may be described as a branch, or a spike of flowers; _reverse_, a disjointed horse, chariot-wheel, etc., and the letters CATTI.

COMVX.

Much the same as the last, with the letters, on _reverse_, COMVX.

VO-CORIO.

The reading of these is doubtful. The coins are much the same as the last, with the letters VO-CORIO over the horse on the _reverse_. One variety has the additional letters A D in front of the horse’s head, and another also a D by its legs; thus the continuous inscription would be VOCORIOADD, but is at present uninterpretable.

ANTEDRIGVS.

_Obverse_, same as the last; _reverse_, disjointed horse, with chariot-wheel and other objects, and the letters ANTEDRIGV, or ANTE[BO] I. OV. Another type has, _obverse_, a barbarous attempt at a head; and _reverse_, a horse as usual, with the letters ANTE[BO], or ANTED, or ANTE[BO]RI, etc.

INMA, INAM, or INARA.

_Obverse_, as before; _reverse_, disjointed horse, with chariot-wheel, etc., and the letters INMA, INAM, or more probably INARA.

SVEI.

_Obverse_, barbarous attempt at a head; _reverse_, disjointed horse, and letters SV above, and EI beneath the horse. Probably struck by some British regulus whose name began with SVEI.

COMMIVS (?).

_Obverse_, rude attempt at a head; _reverse_, disjointed horse, with chariot-wheel, etc., and the letters MMIOS, or OMMIOS.

TINC[OMMIVS].

A son of Commivs. _Obverse_, on some, portions of a rude bust; on others, TINC on a sunk tablet; others, COM, or COM·F, on a similar sunk tablet; others, TINCOM, or NCOM, etc., between zigzag and corded lines across the field; others, TINC on a tablet, above which is C and below F, etc. _Reverse_, on some, a rude, disjointed horse, with the letters, TINC COMMI F; others, a horse as before, with TIN DV; others, of a higher class of art, a horseman poising a javelin, and charging to the left, with C F below and a star above; others, horseman with javelin as before, and TIN; another, a winged head of Medusa, which unique coin is in Mr. Evans’s cabinet; others, a horse and TIN; and other varieties.

VERICA, or VIRICA.

A son of Commivs. _Obverse_, an expanded five-lobed leaf, or a cluster of five oak leaves, with VI on one side, and RI on the other; a sunk tablet of various forms, with the letters COM·F; VERI·COM·F in two lines; VERICA COMMI F encircling a circular shield, or other object; COM F between crescents with horns facing inwards; a semi-draped seated figure, with VERICA; a filleted bust with VIRRI; and others, examples of which are here engraved. _Reverse_, on some a horseman galloping or leaping, with CO·F, VIR REX, or VIR; a riderless horse with REX, VI, VIR; a lion with VIR; a trophy of an attempted imitation of the Roman caduceus between two cornucopiæ, rising from a two-handled vase, and COMMI F; a capricorn, with EPPI COM F, etc.; this latter being very remarkable as bearing the names of the two brothers Verica and Eppillus. Another variety has a horseman on each side, with COM F on the _obverse_, and VERICA on the _reverse_; and another, a diademed and draped bust on one side with VIRI, and on the other, a seated figure of Victory (?), as here engraved.

EPPILLUS.

One of the sons of Commius, and brother to Tinc[ommius] and Verica. His name occurs in various stages of abbreviation, EPPILLVS, EPPIL, EPPI, EPP, and EP. _Obverse_, on some the name EPPIL COM F in two lines across the coin; others, a circular wreath inclosing COM F; or winged figure of Victory within a wreath; or a beaded band and a line of foliage in saltire, with the four letters E P P I, one on each of the angles of the cross; or a diademed head; or an eagle rising with EPP; or an ornamental cross, with EPPI COM F between the limbs (p. 6, Fig. E); or a bull, evidently copied from the coin of Augustus, here engraved. _Reverse_, a winged horse, or Pegasus; or an undraped horseman galloping, with EPPILLVS, etc.; or draped horseman galloping, with EPPI COM F; or horse only, with EPPI, and a quatrefoil or other ornaments; or undraped standing winged figure, with EP; or a crescent between two clusters of pellets, with REX CALLE (supposed to allude to Calleva--Silchester--as place of mintage); and other varieties.

DVBNOVELLAVNVS.

_Obverse_, on some a device (placed diagonally across the coin) that may almost be taken to be the thunderbolt of Jove, between two circles that _may_ be the wheel of Nemesis, the emblem of swift and retributive justice, as not unfrequently represented in Roman art; or a laureated head, with DVBNO; or other device. _Reverse_, on some a horse with or without a wreath or branch below and other minor devices, with the letters DVBNO ..., [DV]BNOVELL ..., DVBNOVIILLA, [DVBNO]VIILLAVN, or DVBNO[VELLA]VNOS; or a griffin, or ornithocephalous winged horse with star and other ornaments; or a horse with DVBN in a tablet; or other varieties.

VOSE[NOS] (?).

_Obverse_, plain convex. _Reverse_, a horse, above which is a bull’s head and a ring ornament; and, beneath, what has been described as a “horned serpent,” but may be a torque or other object, with ... NOS; or a horse with other accompaniments, and VOSII.

AMMINVS.

_Obverse_, a bust to the right, with or without AMMI; or a plant of seven branches with AMMINVS. _Reverse_, front view of a biga, or what may be described as two demi-horses conjoined, heads and forelegs facing outwards, a human head between, and the letters E above and S below; or the exergual line, winged Pegasus passant, with DVN above and AM; or a Capricorn, or hippocampus, and AM.

CRAB.

Only two coins, according to Mr. Evans, are known bearing this name, or rather commencement of a name, the remainder of which is unknown. One of the two known examples bears on the _obverse_ a cross whose limbs are formed of three rows of beads, with central ring, and in the angles between the limbs of the cross the letters C R A B. _Reverse_, an eagle rising regardant. The other has, _obverse_, the letters C R A B on a tablet, above which is an annulet, and, below, an S-shaped object; _reverse_, a tressure of six beaded points, points outwards, with a central ring, and within each of the outer curves three pellets.

ANDOCO[MIVS] (?).

_Obverse_, on some, bust to the right, with the letters ANDOCO; or a double cruciform ornament, formed, the one cross of beaded fillets, and other of two torque-like figures, more or less developed and accompanied by other minor marks (p. 6, Fig. B); or a bearded profile bust with a, etc. _Reverse_, a horse, with ANDOCO; or a horse with a bull’s head above, and ANDO; or a bridled winged Pegasus, with ANDOC, the N and D conjoined, etc.

TASCIOVANVS.

Ascertained from numismatic evidence to have been the father of Cunobelinus and of Epaticcus, is supposed to have reigned some quarter of a century B.C., with his capital fixed at Verulamium, and to have died somewhere about 5 B.C. _Obverse_, on some, a double cruciform device of the same general character as the last described, but of more or less disjointed and imperfect execution (p. 6, Fig. H); or a somewhat similar device, with the letters TASCI between the limbs of the cross; or TASC on an oblong tablet with lines extended from its angles, and forming, with a beaded band, etc., a kind of cruciform ornament; or TASC within an oblong tablet surrounded by a beaded circle; or a beaded bust to the left; or a laureated bust, with TASCIA; or a Pegasus, with TAS; or an eagle, wings closed, regardant, with TASCIA; or a bust to the right, with TASCIAVA; and others. _Reverse_, on some, a horse with various accompaniments, with TASCIOVAN, [T]ASCIAV, TAXCI, TASCIA, or TASC, etc.; or a mounted horseman, with various contractions of the name; or a figure of Pegasus; or a bull with tail over back and head as in act of tossing, as on the coin of Augustus (already referred to under Eppillus), from which it has evidently been copied; or a winged griffin; or a boar; or other device.

VERVLAMIVM.

The coins of Verulamium, the ancient city of Verulam, near St. Albans, the capital of the Catyeuchlani, and a place of mintage during some period of time, are tolerably numerous in their types and of considerable interest. Its name as a place of mintage first appears upon the coins of Silvanus; on the gold in extremely small characters, but more conspicuously upon the silver and copper pieces. On some of the latter we have the name of the town alone, without that of the prince, but the types are so connected with those which bear the name of Tasciovanus that it is evident the apparently autonomous coins must have been issued during his reign. Among the abbreviated forms of the name of the city upon coins there struck are V, VER, VIIR, and VERLAMIO, and these occur in connection with, or separate from, other inscriptions. The _obverse_ of one, bearing the letters VERLAMIO between the points of the limbs of a double cruciform ornament, is engraved on (p. 6, Fig. J).

TASCIO RICON.

Coins bearing the letters--