TWO 'NEW' YORKSHIRE HOARDS OF SHORT CROSS PENNIES

Transcription

1 TWO 'NEW' YORKSHIRE HOARDS OF SHORT CROSS PENNIES J. D. BRAND and R. H. M. DOLLEY IN the shire Museum, which was formerly the museum of the shire Philosophical Society, there is preserved a manuscript book prepared by the Rev. C. Wellbeloved entitled 'A Catalogue of British, Saxon and English Gold and Silver coins in the Museum of the shire Philosophical Society' which gives details of two nineteenthcentury Short Cross hoards. The earlier of these was found in Minster during the excavations following the great fire of 1829 and consisted of seventy-four English Short Cross pennies together with two pennies of William the Lion of Scotland. The whole find was presented to the society in 1832 by the Rev. W. V. Harcourt and the acquisition was briefly mentioned in the Proceedings of the shire Philosophical Society in that year and again in Dr. D. M. Metcalf noted these references in his article on northern finds of medieval coins (BNJ xxx. i (1960), p. 101), but unfortunately gave the contents as being seventysix Long Cross pennies. One should always bear in mind when using old reports of coin finds that references to coins of Henry II and of Henry III can as well refer to Short Cross pennies. Even among numismatic specialists it was not until 1863 that the Rev. W. H. D. Longstaffe propounded the revolutionary theory that the Short Cross pennies were a continuous issue started under Henry II and continued without break through the reigns of Richard I and John into the reign of Henry III. Until then some authorities, including Hawkins in his Silver Coins of England, had attributed all such coins to Henry II while others, including Ruding in his Annals of the Coinage, had given them all to Henry III. For many years after 1863 also, non-specialist numismatists writing on these coins would refer for their information to the published standard books instead of wading through the many volumes of the Numismatic Chronicle. The hoard is cited as no. 390 in Mr. J. D. A. Thompson's Inventory, but unfortunately the coins he listed under this reference are eleven Norman pennies which in fact were found some years later in Monkgate (see R. H. M. Dolley, 'Coin Hoards from the London Area', Trans. Lond. and Middlesex Arch. Soc. xx. ii (1960), p. 12). Wellbeloved played safe in his catalogue of the hoard and described them as' Coins of Henry lid or Henry Hid, and two coins of William the Lion of Scotland, found in the North Aisle of the Choir of Minster, after the fire of 1829'. He noted that Hawkins gave them as Henry II second coinage and that Ruding, North, and others gave them as Henry III first coinage. The actual coins cannot now be positively identified in the museum trays as not only have they been combined with the general collection but a few have been dispersed. Against the list of readings noted by Wellbeloved are therefore given the Lawrence classes of coins now in the museum with the same legends. The latest coins observed that could have been in the hoard were of class 6. The earliest coin was probably a YbjVa mule.

2 TWO 'NEW' YORKSHIRE HOARDS OF SHORT CROSS PENNIES 95 THE YORK MINSTER (1829) HOARD Readings by Wellbeloved Classes of the coins now in the Museum LONDON ABEL.ON.LVNDE (7) Vc, Via, and Vila ELIS.ON.LVNDE ELIS.ON.LVNDEN ILGER.ON.LVND (6) Via, and ILGER.ON.LVNDE Vc, Via, and RAVF.ON.LVND (3) Vc RAVF.ON.LVNDE Vc RAVLF.ON.LVND (3) RICARD. ON. LVN Vb/Va mule TERRI.ON.LVND (4) TERRI.ON.LVNDE WALTER.ON.LV (4) Vc, Via WAL[TERON]LVN Via WILLELM.ON.LV None (? WILLELM.T. VC) (37) CANTERBURY ARNAUD.ON.CANT COLD WINE.ON. C COLD WINE. ON. CA HENRI. ON. CANTE HVGO.ON.CANTE IOAN.ON.CA IOAN.ON.CANT IOAN. ON. CANTE IOAN. ON. CANTER IVN. ON. CANTE IVN. ON. CANTER IVN.ON.CANTERD OSMUNDE.ON.CA ROBERD.ON.CAN ROGER. ON. CANTE ROGER. ON. RONC ROGER.ON SALEMVN.ON.CA SAMVEL.ON.CAN SIMON.ON. CANT SIMVN. ON. CANTE TOMAS.ON.CANT WALTER.ON.CANT (29) Vb, but only CAN Vb (another coin, of class IV, probably came from the Cook collection) Vb None (? HVE, Vb)? part reading Vb or Vc Vic ornamented letters (ROGER.OF.R.ON.C) Vb Vic ornamented letters BURY ST. EDMUNDS NORMAN.ON.SA...

3 96 TWO 'NEW' YORKSHIRE HOARDS OF SHORT CROSS PENNIES IPSWICH IOHAN.ON.GIPE Vb NORWICH IOHAN.ON.NORV Vc ROCHESTER ALISAN.ON.ROV Vb WINCHESTER ADAM.ON.WIN Vb UNIDENTIFIED HICONE.ON.? NICOLE YORK 'Blundered' (74) SCOTTISH Both had ' Rude head in profile to the right, sceptre before' on the obverse, and ' Short double cross, with a mullet of six points in each angle' on the reverse. 1. obv. +LE.REI.WILA Rev. +HVEWALTERO 2. Obv. Probably as above, much defaced. Rev. +HVEWALTERY Both coins would be of Mr. B. H. I. H. Stewart's Third Coinage. The second of the Short Cross hoards is described in the manuscript catalogue as 'Part of a hoard found near Barnsley, in the year The Curator is not certain as to the date as he could obtain no information from the finder who was afraid of the Lord of the Manor respecting either time or place.' Twelve coins only were acquired, all of provincial mints, and were no doubt specially selected by Wellbeloved as not being already represented in the museum collections. It is possible that this was an early parcel from the 'shire 1861 Hoard' (Inventory 393) though the lapse of five years before a large quantity of these coins came on the market in 1861 renders it somewhat unlikely. The date of acquisition in 1856 is indeed confirmed by an independent reference in the Proceedings of the Society. All twelve were probably of class Vb with the exception of the coin of Durham which was probably of Vc. The list of the coins as made by Wellbeloved is as follows: Bury St. Edmunds Chichester Durham Exeter Ipswich Lincoln FVLKE.ON.S.AD PICRES. ON. CIC PICRES.ON.DVR RICARD.ON.EC NEAR BARNSLEY (1856) ALISANDRE. ON. GI 1 HVE. ON.NICOLE Lynn Oxford Rochester HOARD NICOLE.ON.LEN HENRI.ON.OC(? S)E HVNFREI.ON.RO D AVI. ON. EVER NICOLE. ON. EVE NICOLE.ON.EVER 1 There is now no coin of this moneyer in the Museum collection.

4 97 TWO 'NEW' YORKSHIRE HOARDS OF SHORT CROSS PENNIES The dating of the deposit of the Minster hoard can be fixed within reasonably narrow limits. It contains coins of the London moneyer Terri who first appears in the records as a moneyer in On the other hand, it does not contain any coins of the London moneyers Adam, Ledulf, and Ricard who were all appointed in The hoard may therefore be dated with some confidence to the decade , and may perhaps be associated in some way with the very similar hoards from Hickleton, shire (Inventory 189), and from Clifton, Lancashire (Inventory, but see NC 1947, pp ). The 'Near Barnsley 1856 Hoard' presents greater problems as the coins listed were only a selection from a larger find. The fact that they are all of class V helps to prove only that it was deposited after c Coins ceased to be struck at the provincial mints after about this time with the exception of very small, and very rare, issues from Durham, Winchester, and in or about 1218, and the small though fairly regular issues from the abbatial mint of Bury St. Edmunds. We are therefore left with the possibilities that this could have been deposited quite late in the Short Cross period or could, perhaps more probably, have been as early as the period c The latter theory would date it with the 'shire 1861' hoard (.Inventory 393), of which it may be an early parcel, which was discussed by Mr. R. H. M. Dolley in BNJ xxix. ii (1959), pp A reconsideration of the 1861 hoard, however, shows that it most probably ended with class VIa, and Mr. Dolley would accept Mr. Brand's revision. The London moneyers Abel, Ilger, Ravf, and Walter, who were extraordinarily prolific in classes late Vc and Via, at a time when this was apparently the only mint striking coinage, together total 291 coins out of the total recorded of 476, or 61 per cent. As the latest theories on the chronology of the Short Cross series, the reasons for which will be discussed elsewhere, date the commencement of class VI to c , and the commencement of class to 1218 this does not invalidate, but indeed strengthens, Mr. Dolley's suggested dating of the find. Before leaving the subject of the 'shire 1861' hoard, to which Dr. D. M. Metcalf has now attributed a find-spot at Cawthorne some four miles from Barnsley (BNJ xxx. i (1961), p. 123), a slight amendment to the Inventory account should perhaps be noted. Sir John Evans in his paper entitled 'The Short Cross Question', NC 1865, p. 293 n., remarked of this hoard that 'The coin of Alisandr., placed under Canterbury, is of Ipswich'. On the same page he also says, 'All the coins were of my third class' (i.e. of Lawrence classes V and VI), a claim which must surely mean that it contained no coins of Lawrence class. A summary of the first of the above two hoards in Inventory format could be as follows: 390. YORK, no. 7, Minster, English and Scottish. Deposit ENGLAND (74 pennies): John-Henry III: Short Cross pennies Bury St. Edmunds: Norman, 1 (Lawrence class ); Canterbury: Arnavd, 1 (VZ>); Goldwine, 2 (V6?); Henri, 2 (); 'Hvgo' (Hve?), 2 (V6?): loan, 6 (); Ivn, 4 (); Osmvnde, 1 (VI I); Roberd, 1 (V6 or Vc); Roger, 2 (VIc. Ornamented, ); Roger of R, 1 (); Salemvn, 1 (); Samvel, 1 (); Simon, 1 (V/j); Simvn, 1 (); Tomas, 2 (); Walter, 1 (VIc. Ornamented); Ipswich: Iohan, 1 (Wb)\ London: Abel, 7 (Vc, Via, Vila); Elis, 3 (); Ilger, 8 (Vc, Via, ); Ravf, 4 (Vc); Ravlf, 3 (); Ricard, 1 (Vb/Va mule); Terri, 5 (); Walter, 5 (Vc, Via); Willelm (Willelm T?), 1 (Vc?); Norwich: lohan, 2 (Vc); Rochester: Alisan, 1 (V6); Winchester: Adam, 1 (V6); : Nicole, 1 (V6?); Blundered: 1. SCOTLAND (2 pennies): William the Lion without name of mint, Stewart type 3. Hve Walter, 2. c 2220 II

5 98 TWO 'NEW' YORKSHIRE HOARDS OF SHORT CROSS PENNIES J. D. Brand and R. H. M. Dolley in UA'/xxxii (1963), pp correcting earlier accounts therein cited. Disposition: The shire Museum,. Presented by the Rev. W. V. Harcourt, in 1832, and catalogued by the Rev. C. Wellbeloved. Found in Minster after the fire of The classes given have been arrived at on the basis of coins in the museum collection in 1963 since the hoard has been broken up and dispersed through the collection so that individual coins cannot always be distinguished. In the same way the second find can be reduced to Inventory format as follows: BARNSLEY (near), shire, c An uncertain number of English pennies (12 listed). Deposit c John: Short Cross pennies, all Lawrence class V? Bury St. Edmunds: Fvlke, 1. Chichester: Pieres, 1. Durham: Pieres, 1. Exeter: Ricard, 1. Ipswich: Alisandre, 1. Lincoln: Hve, 1. Lynn: Nichole, 1. Oxford: Henri, 1. Rochester: Hvnfrei, 1. : Davi, 1, Nicole, 2. J. D. Brand and R. H. M. Dolley in BNJ xxxii (1963), pp Disposition: twelve coins were presented by the Rev. C. Wellbeloved in 1856 to the shire Museum. They may represent a selection from an early parcel from no. 393 but this is unlikely. It only remains for the authors to thank Mr. G. F. Willmot, B.A., F.S.A., the Keeper of the shire Museum, for all his help and especially for the facilities he gave for inspection of the museum's collections and records.