The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

112 G. C. BROOKE.
show, if earlier, that Matilda's coinage is at the same
time progressive
in orthography and retrogressive in
style, or, if later, that it is progressive in style while
retrogressive in orthography.
It seems, then, that these coins, from their style and
quality and their places of mintage, must be regarded
as, for a period, the regular coinage of the realm, that
is to say, the coinage issued by the authorities of the
king's mints. At the time of Stephen's captivity, the
anarchical condition and the uncertainty of events,
which gave many barons the opportunity to sell their
allegiance at a high price, caused some at least of the
ecclesiastics, so William of Malmesbury tells us, to
attach themselves to the Empress's side after obtaining
Stephen's permission to temporize. The position of
the mint officials, we may well suppose, was a most
difficult one. The coins which they issued, bearing
as they did the names of the moneyers, must in future
time be positive evidence of their loyalty or disloyalty
at this crisis. If, as seemed probable, the Empress were
to obtain the throne, the issue of coins in Stephen's
name would convict the moneyers, and with them the
other officials, of active sympathy with the deposed
king; on the other hand, should Stephen regain the
throne afterwards, their loyalty to Matilda during
the period of her ascendancy would, if they struck
coins in her name, presumably be properly punished
on his return. I am therefore disposed to believe that
the mint officials, like the clergy, temporized, and that
they put on the obverse of their coins an inscription
which was as unintelligible to contemporaries as it is
to students of the present day. It would thus at least
be possible to prove to both the king and the Empress