the very commencement of the study of our English Anti quities; and having been, as I think, ahnost universally propagated by our authors engaged in this subject, it is bes come in a manner inveterate. But let us examine, if you please, a little into the merits of it. No Saxon coins, say they, in this rich metal, have ever appeared; but you will think this a very weak argument in the case before us, if you reflect on what Mr. Thoresby says in relation to the Sticas, namely, that the three in his collection were all that were known at Oxford so lately as the Latin edition of King Ælfred's life in 1678; and it is certain that till the year 1695, when a nest of Sticas was discovered at Rippon, in Yorkshire, the Saxon money in copper was extremely scarce. The same gentleman also testifies, in regard to the pennies of William the Conqueror and William Rufus, that they were so very rare in his time, though now so plentiful that there is hardly any collection but what will exhibit you half a dozen of them, that with the utmost diligence he could but procure one of either king till A.D. 1703, when a fire happening at York, occasioned the finding a box which contained 250 of them. It was some time before the learned antiquaries would believe there were any such pieces as groats of king Edward I. and yet now they are fully convinced of it. As to gold coins in particular, those of Livius Severus are exceedingly rare in this kingdom; and those of Allectus every where. The late earl of Pembroke, at the suggestion of Mr. Folkes, thought proper to purchase the gold Allectus in Lord Oxford's catalogue. The same P presume which is engraved in the Pembrochian tables, Part T plate 38. and Mr. Folkes being commissioned by his lord ship to bid for it, gave no less, as I have been told, than 60 guineas for it. But what is most to the present purpose, King Henry III. coined some gold, and yet I cannot learn that any of the pieces have yet appeared. Mr. Leake indeed seems to doubt the fact, but there is no room for that since, besides the manuscript chronicle of the city of London, by him cited, the words of the record in the Tower, if my copy be right, (and it came from the late Mr. Holmes) asserts it most expressly. ID "Rot. claus. Anno 41. Rs. Hen. 3. m. 3. de Moneta Aurea. Mandatain est majori et vicecomitibus London, quod clamári *Dr. Plot and Mr. Walker may perhaps be excepted; sed Dissert. 4. in the Series of Dissertations. faciant in civitate predicta, quod moneta regis aurea quam rex fieri facit de cetero currat tam in civitate predicta quam alibi per regnum Anglie tam ad emptiones quam ad venditiones faciendas, viz. quilibet denarius pro xx denarjis Sterlingorum. Et quod moneta regis argentea currat similiter sicut currere consuevit. T. R. apud Cestriam XVI. die Augusti. Per Consilium Regis." It is here positively declared that the king had caused some gold money to be made, which was to pass for twentypence (not twenty shillings, as is said in the notes on Rapin), and yet no specimen of this money has been hitherto produced. The use I would make of these histories, is to shew the unreasonableness and inconclusiveness of the prejudice in question, as likewise the probability, after what has been said in the Series of Dissertations, of the Saxons having struck some gold, though so few of their pieces in that metal have as yet come down to us. But perhaps you may here ask what can be the occasion, of the Saxon gold coins being scarce? The probable cause of this, I take to be, the scarcity of gold bullion amongst them. For this island produced none itself, and our foreign trade in those times was but small, very little uncoined gold I conceive, was imported into the kingdom. Besides provisions and other necessaries were then so cheap, that there was little occasion for gold in the course of people's traffic one amongst another; consequently this species of coin being but little wanted for the purpose of commerce, there was the less necessity for the striking of any great quantity of it. These now were plausible causes of scarcity, and yet not such as to exclude the coinage of gold in some small portions, which is all that is asserted in the Series of Dissertations. So much in regard to popular prejudice: you would observe, Sir, that in the preface to the Series of Dissertations I mentioned a gold coin of my own which I imagined might be an Anglo-Saxon, and I dare say you would wonder that I caused it not to be engraved on that occasion. That, Sir, I did not think proper to do, because, though I was suf ficiently satisfied myself, from the appearance of it, that it was a Saxon; yet, to say the truth, I could not at that time make out the reverse of it so clearly as I could wish; but it has happened since then, by a very particular good fortune, that my friend Mr. White, to whom the second dissertation in the Series is addressed, sent me down a gold coin, which proved to be a duplicate to mine, and though imper fect in the legend of the reverse, as mine was, yet the imperfection being in a different part, the two coins both together furnish out a complete legend. The reading is evidently DVITA MONE, that is, Duita Monetarius, and this I think a confirmation of the piece being a real AngloSaxon.' Vat that time had the power of W, and you are sensible that dw and tw are the initial letters of many Saxon words: and that they should be so in proper names is certainly very analogous probably the modern name of Dwight is no other than this Saxon one DVITA: but however that be, DVITA has the appearance of a genuine Saxon name, the first syllable of which occurs in that of Duina, one of the bishops of Rochester.* And as Wina and Duina may be supposed to be the same name, so I apprehend Witta and Duita may be the same; and Witta is the name of the grandfather of Hengist. The crosses upon these reverses are a good deal after the manner of the French, from whence, one has reason to think, the moneyer chose to imitate the gold specie of that nation. This, Šir, is all I shall trouble you with at this juncture, only you must give me leave to intreat you to accept in good part this public testimony of regard from your old and invariable friend, Whittington, June 12. 1756, June, S. PEGGE. LIII. On the Existence of Gold Coin previous to the reign of Edward III. To Emanuel Mendez Da Costa, Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Society of Antiquaries. SIR, THE existence of coined gold, after the Norman æra, and previous to the reign of Edward III. as occasionally mention-ed in the letter to Dr. Taylor, admits of so much further illustration, that the learned antiquary must be indispensably Tanuer's Biblioth. p. 242, and the authors there quoted. obliged to every gentleman who will contribute any thing to its perfect establishment. The fact rests at present upon the authority of the manuscript chronicle of the city of London, and the record in the Tower, both which, methinks, receive some confirmation from the nature of the florin struck by Edward III. for the florin at 6s. 8d. i. e. eightypence, stands in the same proportion to the gold penny of Henry III. which was to pass for twenty-pence, as the silver groat of Edward did to the silver penny. I propose not that gentlemen should lay a grain more weight upon this observation than what it will really bear; but certainly the following Jewish instrument, with which you have been pleased to favour me in an English dress, as I here give it, may demand their best attention, since it so perfectly accords with the other evidences above, and would perhaps be sufficient of itself, were it even destitute of their aid, to establish the point in question. But be that as it will, you will permit me, Sir, to intreat you to accept of this public acknowledgment, together with the remarks subjoined to the instrument (upon which I know you will put such a construction as is most consistent with friendship and candour) as the best return I can make for the obligation of this humane and seasonable communication. I am, Yours, &c. ។ SAMUEL PEGGE. The Instrument. I, the undersigned, do hereby confess with final confession, that at any time there cometh my brother-in-law Rabby Aaron, the son of Rabby Judah, within fifteen days of Pentecost, in the forty-sixth year of the reign of our Lord the King Henry, the son of King John, and possess me in the house and yard, and the small house, the kitchen and all that belongs to him that he hath given me, by the bond of rugraphy, in which bond is expressly mentioned with entire possession, and was made before the Rev. Dr. Hamelsar and the aldermen, then at the same time I did confess that I forgave and discharged him of all the debt of fourteen jaku that he owes me upon a bond of ærugraphy, from the creation of the world to the end thereof, and from all other debts that were made before Pentecost, as well as those of my honoured father of pious memory, as those of my ho noured mother who is still living, except that debt he owes me as is declared in the bond of ærugraphy of the present that he made me of the said house against his heirs, and against any body that should come by his power, or by the assignment of his hand, and with good witness, that he the said Rabby Aaron cannot pretend to prove or quarrel against the witnesses or the pretension. And if there is no gift or pension of the king limited before the above-named Pentecost, it shall be prolonged for the term of fifteen days after any limited gift or pension of the king, and I do confess with a penalty of two jaku, to possess the said Rabby Aaron with all my might in the court, as is declared in the bond of sale, that I made him in the bond office* for two jaku of gold, immediately after he has possessed me in the said house, and all what is due to him, and in presence of the Rev. Dr. Hamelsar and the aldermen, if he pleases to receive it from my hands, and this said fine is to our lord the king, and all the time that this bond is in his hand, and he does not put me in possession of it, as is declared above, I cannot neglect to give our lord the king two jaku of gold, and all is right and stedfast, and what I have confessed, I have signed. Aaron, the son of Rabby Haim. The Remarks, The manuscript chronicle puts the gold coinage of Henry III. at the year 1258, which agrees perfectly with the record in the tower, which is dated 16th Aug. 41 H. III. for Henry acceded to the crown 19th Oct. 1216, and 16th Aug, in the 41st year of his reign, will consequently be in 1258, This instrument, in which jaku of gold are mentioned, is dated some years after the coinage, as one would expect. But the question is, what were the jaku of gold? The word at first sight seems to be no other than the French, Ecu; but then it does not appear that the ecu of gold was coined so soon as this. (See Mons. Le Blanc, p. 200.) Besides, as there is mention of fourteen jaku in the instrument, Hebrew, ærugraphy. |