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I. Description of a large collection of Coins of William the Conqueror, discovered at Beaworth, in Hampshire; with an attempt at a chronological arrangement of the Coins of William I. and II. By Edward Hawkins, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A., F.L.S.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2012
Extract
On Sunday afternoon, June 30, 1833, as four boys, under ten years of age, were playing at marbles in a small piece of pasture land called the Old Litten, attached to the homestead called the Manor House, in Beaworth, one of them discovered in the track of a waggon-wheel a piece of lead sticking up above the surface; upon stooping down to take hold of it, he discovered a small hole, into which he thrust his hand, and brought out a number of coins, his companions immediately following his example. Though they did not consider their treasure to be more than old buttons, they concealed a part of them in an adjoining potatoe field, and others they took into the village of Beaworth; but treating them as of no value, some they jerked into a pond, and others they flung about the road. Half a dozen villagers who were, as usual upon a Sunday afternoon, congregated in the street, were attracted by the circumstance, and being more aware of the value of the pieces thus discovered, hastened to the spot, and commenced a regular scramble for the booty. As some of the parties obtained possession of many more than others, the parents of the boys who first discovered the treasure became dissatisfied, and appealed on the following morning to Mr. Dunn of Alresford, the owner of the land. This gentleman immediately sent a confidential person to Beaworth, to claim from the parties the delivery of the Coins to him, which was readily complied with, though, it is suspected, not to the full extent, and on the same evening Mr. Dunn received upwards of six thousand Coins.
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References
page 3 note a Edgar grants to Æthelwulf Bishop of Winchester “60 telluris cassatos at Ticceburnam & at Beowyrthi.” Æthelstan makes a grant “Alfeago Episcopo, A. D. 938, villæ Ticceburnam vocitatæ. Possidet autem hæc villa mansas quinque eo loco qui Beowyrth dicitur.”
page 7 note b While these sheets were passing through the press, a strong proof occurred of the utility of combining the names of the moneyers and mints. Mr. Cuff, whose collection is extensive and knowledge correct, suggested the possibility of some of the coins attributed to Stepney belonging to Stafford. A mere inspection of the list satisfied him that none of the coins struck by GODRIL or ĐURBERN could be removed from Stepney,—those with the equivocal letters STE being limited to that place by those of STEFL and STENI, struck by the same moneyer. The probability of GODPINE ON STIEF having been struck at Stafford was freely admitted, but as that place is not recorded in Domesday to have had a mint, and as Ruding, though he inserts in his list of Towns, but without naming his authority, a reading which can only refer to Stafford, still says the name does not occur upon any coin subsequent to the Conquest, it was not deemed safe to remove the coin until the coincidence of GODPINE with some fuller reading of the name of the town should be found to establish the correct locality. An examination of Mr. Cuff's Coins, upon his return home, furnished the proof required; a coin in his collection, of the type fig. 2, reads GODPINE ON STFFRD; and GODPINE ON STIEF was accordingly, without hesitation, removed from Stepney to Stafford, where it now appears in the following list.
page 9 note b The obverse of this coin is from the same die as those of SVNOLF ON LEH and SVNOVLF ON LEI.
page 9 note c There is not any record of this mint; but a coin of Edward the Confessor reads RELAD, which seems to fix the locality.
page 9 note d These pieces are probably forgeries, and the names of the mint and moneyer factitious. See the account of some barbarous coins at the end of the catalogue.
page 9 note e f The obverse of these coins are from the same die; the names therefore are probably different or blundered spellings of the same moneyers’ names.
page 11 note g This letter as much resembles R as H, and the coin may read RVDIN for Rhuddlan; but the name of the moneyer makes H the more probable reading.
page 11 note h Of this mint there is not any record. A coin of Canute, inscribed HVTHA, is appropriated to this town, and there can scarcely be a doubt about the locality of the above coins
page 11 note i j The obverse of these coins is from the same die as VNNVLF ON CESTRE
page 12 note k On the coins of this town the N is never reduplicated, the same letter serving for ON and NORĐ.
page 13 note l Ruding omits this name in his list of the Conqueror's mints, but inserts it in that of Rufus.
page 13 note m Ruding assigns the coins with these letters to St. Edmundsbury. This place certainly had the privilege of coining in this reign; and there not being any other coins in the list which can be here located, Ruding may be right; the discovery of a coin by the same moneyer, with one more letter, would decide the question.
page 14 note m SVĐ is here limited to Sudbury by the letter B upon the other coins of the same moneyer; as the same letters are limited to Southwark by the letter P upon the coins of IELDOLF and OSMVND.
page 15 note n The two P'S in this coin are so peculiarly struck that it cannot be absolutely pronounced that the word is not intended for Derby; unfortunately there is only one specimen, nor does the moneyer's name occur again.
page 16 note o It is difficult to ascribe a probable origin to these coins; the workmanship is so bad and so different in style, the inscriptions so entirely without probable interpretation, that they can scarcely be considered to have been struck under the royal authority; and yet the weight and fineness of the metal, equalling that of the authentic coins, seem to take away the great temptations to forgery.
In addition to these coins, there are of the Paxs type, eighteen half coins divided in the exact line of one limb of the cross; cut therefore by design, and without doubt with the intention of being circulated as halfpence.
page 19 note p Such transmission of coins fresh from the die, from the various mints dispersed over the whole country, would appear to have been usual, for the coins of Henry II. amounting to about 6000, which were found at Tealby, “were all as fresh as when they first issued from the mint.” Such also was the condition of some other large parcels of coins which have been heretofore discovered.