THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

UNITED KINGDOM
spirit of servile imitation which it breathes, as well as
the absence of that religious sentiment which confers a
character and an individuality on the Greek and Roman
coinages ; and this attribute equally belongs to the
productions of the Anglo-Saxon mints, when the con-
temporary work on the Continent of Europe presented
in a conspicuous manner such diplomatic types or sym-
bols as the Temple, Christiana Religio, and Dei Gratia
or Domini Misericordid, a survival of the interesting
records of local cults and beliefs impressed on the circu-
lating medium of the ancients. At the same time, the
retention of the costume of the British coins on those of
the later race may fortify our belief in the local origin
of the former, from which the Anglo-Saxon pennies,
sceattoe and stycos would thus be a natural evolution.
When we come to the inscribed series, we feel that
we are treading on somewhat surer ground. Yet the
fact is, that nearly all that we know about the money
of this class bearing names, generally abbreviated if
not corrupt, is that they are almost certainly of native
parentage. Like the anepigraphic coins, they are of
very unequal pretensions in respect to fabric and art,
and while we read certain names or parts of names
upon them, there is no direct or collateral clue to the
region in which they were struck, or when the per-
sonage specified flourished. Sir John Evans may be
right in supposing that the two classes ran side by side
but the workmanship is as unsafe a guide in fixing the
chronological sequence as the place of discovery is in
trving to arrive at the place of mintage.
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