dead; but by the time that the Saxons had established a regular coinage of their own, the usages of society had changed, and the practice of burying upon the hills after the manner of the pagans, had given way to the Christian custom of interring in church-yards. The absence of an early Saxon coinage is further accounted for, by the use of ornaments as a medium of commerce and traffic. Mr. Wright, in an article in the Gentleman's Magazine[1], has cited several passages from the poem of Beowulf to shew that rings were as commonly used for money among the Saxons and other Teutonic tribes, as among the Celts. There is internal evidence, from the use of archaic forms and allusions to events, that this poem, in an older and more perfect form, was contemporary with the period when, as corroborative evidence proves, the Saxons had no stamped coinage of their own. Of Hrothgar (the Danish king) it is said.
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He beót ne a-léh; beágas dælde, sine æt symle;
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He belied not his promise; he distributed rings, treasure at the feast;
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The same king is also styled beáh-horda weard, the keeper of the hoards of rings. Another king is spoken of as owning a nation, a town, and rings, and as the giver of rings, and throughout this poem the word rings is synonymous with that of treasure or money.
The other Saxon coins are the styca in brass, and the penny in silver. Examples of the half-penny are also known, but of the farthing, mentioned in the Saxon laws and gospels, no specimen has come down to us. Many of the Saxon coins are rude imitations of the Roman small brass, although, from the low relief of the designs on the thin pieces of silver, as well as from the unskilfulness of the artists, the imitation is not easily detected. On the coins of "Eadweard," A.D. 901 to 924, the gate of the Prætorian camp, on the very common small brass coins of Constantine, is obviously copied, and on another, the hand of Providence, taken from Byzantine coins. The coins of Offa are however well executed, and those of other Saxon princes are not without occasional mediocrity of skill. The obverse of the Saxon pennies gives the name of the king, sometimes with and sometimes without the portrait; the reverse, the moneyer's name and place of mintage, the great
- ↑ Gent.'s Mag. 1837. p. 497. et seq.
