Allosorus crispus, Bernh.-Hameldon Scar, above HuncoatMiss Becker.

Asplenium Filix-fœmina var: Rhæticum, Linn.—Hedge banks at Rufford, occasionally.

Becker.

Trichomanes, Linn.-Wall near Portfield-Miss

Ruta muraria, Linn.-Wall near Portfield-Miss

Becker.

Cystopteris fragilis, Bernh.-In a lane a little to the southwest of the Nick of Pendle; in Altham-Miss Becker.

NOTE.-Miss Becker remarks that she has not seen Saxifraga tridactylites, Geranium lucidum, Asplenium Trichomanes and Rura-muraria, within many miles of their above-mentioned Portfield habitat. For this reason, although the plants are abundant in other parts of the district, the last-named station is considered worthy of mention.

NUMISMATIC HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM

1066 TO THE PRESENT TIME.

PART I. 1066-1504.

By F. J. Jeffery Esq., F.G.H.S.

(READ 4TH MAY, 1865.)

THAT bartering was the means used among the ancients in the primitive state to obtain from one man what another required without force of arms, there is no doubt; but the first invention or use of coined money is unknown. Some suggest that Tubal Cain invented coins, because he was an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron; "* but this is not very probable, for we read, 2000 years after, that Abraham gave Ephron "four hundred shekels of silver,

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current money with the merchant," for the cave of Machpelah, this money being not by tale (or pieces of metal bearing a recognised value throughout the country), but by weight, for "Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which "he had named." If I were to enter into all the arguments as to the origin of coined money, I should fill more space than this paper is intended to do: suffice it to say—some declare Janus or Saturn to have invented it; some (Greeks) Hermodice wife of King Midas; some (Jews) say Abraham,

* Gen. iv, 22.

and, in proof, produce a coin with an old man and woman, "Abraham and Sarah," on one side, and a young man and woman, "Isaac and Rebecca," on the other; others (Latins) say Numa Pompilius, from whose name they say the word numus was derived; but Pliny tells us, 1. 18, cap. 3,* King Servius first impressed the figures of sheep and oxen on the money (copper) whence pecunia, money, itself is derived from pecus (cattle): still the Greek colonists,

"O'er Asia's coast,"

are believed to have the honour of first coining money about 800 B.C.

As Rome and Greece grew powerful and wealthy, so the arts improved from rude figures impressed on pieces of metal, to bold and trustworthy portraits of the Emperors well and, if I may use the term, beautifully executed; but with the fall of Rome, falls her "all," her arts, sciences, everything, and by the time William the Conqueror put his foot on Albion's soil, coining, like all her sister arts, had scarcely passed its lowest ebb: from a fine profile of a Cæsar on a piece of metal of substantial thickness, coining had degenerated to a thin piece of silver with a something on one side styled a portrait, but just such a one as is given in the painting of "Neglected Genius." It is my intention, in a short outline, to trace the progress of the art from this low ebb to its second flood, and shew how and under what circumstances it has gradually improved and again reached to a point of perfection; following the poverty and wealth of this island during the past eight hundred years, as illustrated by her coinage.

There are three distinct sections into which the English coinage can be divided: they are—

"Servius rex, ovium boumque effigie primus aes signavit Pecunia ipsa a pecore appellabatur."

I. The RUDE, to 1504.

II.

The GOTHIC or TUDOR, from 1504 to 1656.
III.-The SIMONIAN, 1656 to the present time.

I. The RUDE, to 1504.

This section I term "rude" from the fact that the portrait is so rough and rude that there was certainly no attempt by the engravers to produce a likeness, for throughout this series any one is as like its original as any other. The cross and pellets, name of mintage-town and, on some, a Latin motto, generally fill the reverse of the silver coins; the obverse bearing the effigy of "my liege," and round the field his name and dignities.

When William I found himself master of the field of Hastings and his opponent numbered among the dead, he did his best to induce his new subjects to believe he succeeded to the throne of England, not by conquest but by right of descent and as lawful heir of Edward the Confessor; and it is worthy of note that in Domesday Book, his arrival is. referred to by the phrase, "after King William had come," as though he had merely "come to his own without opposition;" and only once does "after King William had conquered "England" appear. One of his first acts was to satisfy his new subjects that the coinage would not be changed, and it was with no little pleasure they found his money passing of the same weight, fineness and denomination as that of Harold. "In his laws the fines are regulated by pounds, oras, marcs, "shillings and pence. The shillings are sometimes expressly "stated to be English shillings of fourpence each. But in "Domesday Book various other denominations of money are "to be found; such as the mite, farthing, halfpenny, mare of "gold and of silver, ounce of gold and marsum."* The

• Ruding's Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain, vol. i, p. 147.

penny was the only coined money that is known; the remainder being believed to be merely money by name or names of certain different weights of the respective metals, as on some of the Prussian thalers of our own day we read "XIV eine feine Mark," the mark in this instance being a particular weight of pure silver, and 1-14th mixed with its proportion of alloy is issued as one Thaler.

The following table of value is given in the Encyclopædia Britannica :

THE POUND.-Was a denomination of money only, and not a coin, and signified as many coins as were made out of a pound of metal=5400 grains Troy.

THE MARK.-The same: an Anglo-Danish denomination, two-thirds of a Pound 8 oz.=3600 grains.

THE MANCUS.-The same: a weight equal to 30 pennies 6 shillings. Ye ORA.-The same: Danish subdivision of the mark, one-eighth or one ounce=450 grains.

THE THRISMA.-Three Saxon pennies: not a coin.

THE SHILLING.-Five pennies-112 grains: not a coin.

THE SCEATTE, PENNY, HALFLING, FEARTHLING, STYCA.-Real coins.

But William was not on the throne long, after he felt himself secure, before he violated his promises and declared that the French computation of twelve pence to one shilling should henceforth be used in England. It is very difficult to determine which coins belong to William I, and which to his son William II; the only ones which all authorities agree to belong to William I, are those with "Pax" on the reverse, or "P.A.X.S." (see Plate I), which are believed to have been struck to commemorate the peace between himself and his son Robert.