THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
Ring-money—According to Caesar, the Britons, be-
sides their brass and gold money, were accustomed at
the time the Romans first visited the island to make
use of iron rings {cmnuli ferret) adjusted to specific
weights. The author of the " Commentaries M does not
mention rings in the more precious metals ; but in finds
of coins, objects in gold, usually taken to have been
personal ornaments, as bracelets or armlets, may have
been employed for a similar purpose. The scarcity
of iron among the Britons necessarily rendered objects
of exchange in that metal more valuable securities
than they would at present be ; the application to the
same purpose of personal ornaments of gold in the
form of armlets and bracelets is deduced from analogy
with the existing practice in some parts of the African
continent ; these objects were, in fact, interchangeable,
and were, no doubt, as Caesar acquaints us in respect
to the iron rings, adjusted to certain weights. (Comp.
AkermaiVs Num. Man., p. 229.)
Rouble—Catherine I. struck in 1725 the square
copper rouble, and in 1726 it was reissued with the
half and quarter rouble. The rouble of 1725 and
quarter-rouble of 1726' of this type brought £\05 at
the Meyer sale in 1894. Catherine II. issued the
imperial and double imperial in gold = five and ten
roubles. The Emperor Paul had the five-roubles in the
same metal, engraved by Joseph Mager, and pieces of
three, and five and ten, roubles have been struck by the
later rulers for Poland and Russia respectively. There
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