of Cæsar. These are the coins without the name of any British city or prince, and which are evidently debased copies of the Macedonian coinages of Philip and Alexander,

the head of Apollo on the Philips, and the biga on the reverse, being easily traceable on the one; and the head of Alexander (or Hercules), wearing the lion-skin, on the other. The monetary issues, both of Philip and his son, Alexander, are known to have spread widely into barbarous nations, and copies of every degree of successive rudeness are found from many bad imitations to almost indistinguishable ones. Imitations of the Alexandrian type are very common in France, and have been found also in Jersey, and more rarely in Britain; but imitations of the biga type of the Philips are abundant in England. These coins have neither been collected nor described with the same accuracy and frequency as coins bearing the names of British. princes, and as they thus do not play a conspicuous part in scientific works on the subject, they have been proportionately neglected by ordinary collectors. These British coins, as also those dating after the invasion of Cæsar, are generally much thicker in their proportion than the Greek coinage of the period of Philip and Alexander, which would tend to the supposition that the Britons had previously imitated Greek coins of the earlier epochs, when they were of thick proportion, like the British just described, the originals of which, like those of the late style, came to them through Gaul. If this was the case, we can imagine that they only changed their types at the later period, preserving the ancient mode of fabric as adjusted perhaps to a special and convenient standard. If this theory be true, it will account for the thick lumpish form of the British coins just alluded to. The passage of Cæsar, relating to the coinage he found in circulation, is of doubtful import.

All the earliest coins, with names of British cities or princes, may be safely attributed to the period between the invasion of Cæsar and the complete subjugation of the island by Claudius. The adoption of the Roman alphabet for the inscriptions, and the Latinised forms of the native names of towns and princes being evidence of direct Roman influence. The native princes, after the Roman invasion, appear almost immediately to have commenced striking

money, bearing the names of cities and chiefs, after the manner of Gaul and Spain; and of British coins of this class a considerable variety exists.

Cæsar distinctly states, that the portion of the island which he calls Cantium (Kent), was ruled by petty kings, by four of whom he was attacked on his first landing. He also speaks of Comius, a prince of the Atrebates, as a chiet of considerable influence. Coins, bearing the inscription EPPILLVS COMIF, TINC CMOIF and VIR COMF are, therefore, considered to have been struck by children of the Comius mentioned by Cæsar; that is supposing the inscription to be intended to read-EPPILLVS COMI(i) F(ilius).

The coins of Eppillus have generally a horseman on the side with the name; and sometimes, on the reverse, a Victory, recopied, no doubt, from already existing copies of the staters of Alexander.

On other coins, of a similar class, the names of Segonax, one of the four kings who attacked Cæsar's naval camp-and Calle, occur, with the title of Rex.

Of the same class, are coins bearing the names Camulodunum, the modern Colchester; and Verlamium (the Verulamium of the Romans), the site of the modern St. Albans. The latter have the inscription VERLAMIO, in the compartments of a geometrical ornament, possibly in the ablative case, after the manner of Celtiberian coins of the period, expressing, by Verlamium, by which was understood, money struck by the community of Verlamium. On the obverse is a cow, without inscription, in all the simplicity of an ancient Greek type. Those of Colchester have an ear of wheat for type, and CAMV on the reverse; and on the obverse, a horse, &c., with CVN, the initial letters of the name of Cunobelin.

The most numerous British coins of this class, are those bearing the name of Cunobelinus, the Cymbeline of Shakespeare, who is stated by Geoffrey of Monmouth, to have been educated at Rome, and whose coins are generally of a very superior class, and bear strong marks of Roman influence.

This name is frequently accompanied by one appearing to be Tasciovanus, and which is sometimes accompanied by F. Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, has interpreted one of

these inscriptions as Tasciovan (i) Filius, - the son of Tasciovanus,-as on the coins of Augustus that sovereign describes himself as the son of Julius Cæsar, by whom he had been adopted. There is an extraordinary variety of types upon British coins, bearing the names of Čur obelinus, some of which are fairly executed. One well-known variety has on the obverse a bust wearing a helmet, and the inscription CVNOBELINVS in full; on the reverse, TASCIOVANI. F., above a wild boar. It has been considered somewhat extraordinary that the name of Tasciovanus, so frequently found on British coins, should not be anywhere mentioned by historians. But it appears possible, that his name-if it be indeed that of a chief-ought to be sought among the petty sovereigns of Gaul rather than Britain, as the wild boar is a strictly Gallic type of high antiquity; and it is well known that many British chiefs, who became powerful, were of immediate Gallic descent-of which King Arthur, is a later example.

There are coins,—of similar fabric, but of a somewhat later period, which from the inscription BODVOS, &c.,—have been attributed to Boadicea. These exist both in gold and silver; indeed, many of the British coins above alluded to are found in gold, electrum, silver, and copper.

The subsequent progress of the coinage of Britain, belongs first to the Roman period, and then to modern history, both of which epochs will be noticed in chronological order.

CHAPTER XVI,

OF THE MODERN AND ANCIENT TERMS FOR MONEY OR COIN. OF AUTONOMOUS, REGAL, AND GENERAL COIN, AND OF THE WEIGHTS, MONETARY NAMES, VALUES, AND METALS OF GREEK COINS; AND ALSO THEIR POPULAR NAMES, AND WHENCE DERIVED.

MODERN AND ANCIENT MONEY.

THE modern term coin is derived from the Latin cuneus, a wedge or punch, by means of which the type was impressed upon the coin. But we have received the term more immediately from the old French coigne, a corruption of cuneus, the same instrument as that used by the ancients having remained in use till the operation of hammering was discontinued in consequence of the adoption of the screw press, supposed to have been first introduced in France by Nicholas Brot, in the reign of Louis XIII. about 1620 or 30.

The term money (moneta) was in use among the Romans, with the same meaning as it bears among modern nations— and originated, as is well known, from the circumstance of the Roman standards of weight, measure, and money, being preserved in the temple of Juno Moneta. But this term belongs to the Roman monetary terms rather than the Greek. It will therefore be alluded to in greater detail in the article on the weights, names, and values of Roman money.

Our term numismatics, numismatography, &c. &c., by which the science of the study of coins is known, we also receive from the Romans, it being formed of the later term nummus, or numus, money; but the Romans received it from the Greeks, the original Greek word being nomos, (vóuos) law, of which the more common Greek term, nomisma, * (voμopa) a piece of money, is formed, a name expressing that the

Aristotle in defining voμoua, traces its origin to the necessity felt of bviating the inconvenience of direct barter.

weight, purity, and value of the coins were determined and guaranteed by law. The term xpnμara (chremata) was also used to express money, or property, by the Greeks, in proof of which the following passage is cited by Eckhel from Pindar

Χρήματα, χρηματ', άνηρ,

(Money, money, O man!,

The term χρηματα is no doubt derived from χρημα (chrema) a thing necessary or useful, money being the means of procuring all things useful, just as xpnía expresses the want of necessaries, and as xpηuara, applied to money, expresses property, or possession, as the opposite to poverty.

I may mention here, though I shall have to recur to the same subject again, under the head of silver money of the Greeks, &c., that among the European Greeks (especially the Athenians) money was also known as ápyúpion from apyupos (silver) just as argent expresses money with the modern French; and silver and money were also synonymous terms with the Hebrew people, a denomination which it will easily be conceived arose in both cases from the circumstance that silver formed the great bulk of the currency in those countries, and in fact the Athenians never coined gold till a very late period, and then in such small quantities, that a gold coin of Athens is one of the greatest numismatic rarities; while the Jews, who did not coin money of any description till a very late period, never coined gold at all; so that Shakspeare proved himself but an imperfect archæologist when he spoke of "shekels of the tested gold," the Jewish shekels being all of silver. On the other hand, in Italy, where the original money was copper, the word ÆS expressed both money, and copper, or rather bronze.

GREEK COINS DIVIDED INTO THREE CLASSES.

Greek coins, independent of their various weights, metals, values, and denominations, may be divided into three classes. 1st. AUTONOMOUS coins are such as were issued by nearly every free city of the slightest importance according