The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

YII.
DEFACED COINS OF STEPHEN.
THE Numismatic Society has lately received from one of
its members, Mr. Toplis, his account of a find of coins,
money of Henry I. and Stephen, which, in January, 1880,
occurred at the town of Nottingham. My object in this
paper is to call attention to some of those belonging to
Stephen's reign, if not to Stephen himself; for among
them, I am told, thirty-seven of those examined were
defaced coins, resembling in an important feature one
which was described by me in the pages of the " Chroni-
cle" nearly twenty years ago (N.S. vol. ii. p. 189). Until
the occurrence of this find that coin of mine stood alone ;
standing alone, it was to be looked at rather as a curiosity
in a cabinet, than as that upon which any one could found
anything beyond a few conjectures.
The case seems altered now, when, after deducting
Henry I.'s money, a number (approaching one-fourth of
those examined) exhibit the head of Stephen defaced, as it
is on my coin. I do not say likewise defaced ; because in
this newly discovered hoard it is to be observed how
while as regards all the mode of defacement is the same,
as regards about five-and-twenty the cross is a different
cross from that which defaces the remainder. That coin
of mine was thus described :
" A cross has been rudely
cut into the die from which it came, causing
such deface-