A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE Coins The evidence afforded by literature as to the history of this county will be discussed in the article on the Political History, but there is one entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which must be mentioned here as it throws light upon an archaeological discovery of considerable importance. In 9 1 1 the Chronicle records that the Danish army among the Northumbrians broke the peace and overran the land of Mercia. When the king learned that they were gone out to plunder he sent his forces after them, both of the West Saxons and the Mercians ; and they overtook the army as they were on their way homewards, and they fought against them and put them to flight, and slew many thousands of them ; and there were slain King Eowils, and King Halfdene, and Ottar the Earl, and Scurfa the Earl, and Othulf the Hold, and Benesing the Hold, and Anlaf the Black, and Thurforth the Hold, and Osferth the collector [i.e. of the revenue], and Guthferth the Hold, and Agmund the Hold, and Guthferth. There is good reason to believe, as Mr, W. J, Andrew shows,^ that the famous Cuerdale hoard of silver coins, which was found in 1840 in a leaden chest buried near a difficult ford of the Ribble on the river bank about two miles above Preston, represents the treasure chest of this Danish army, over- taken in its retreat to Northumbria at this ford and destroyed. For amongst the English coins contained therein * were nearly a thousand of Alfred the Great, and forty-five of Edward the Elder, and as the latter reign was the latest in date of any in this hoard the time of deposit may be inferred as lying between 901 and 925. It is no difficult task for this numismatist to assign an even closer date. The fact that only three issues of Edward's coinage are represented, allowing an average of three or four years for each issue, brings the date approximately to 911, which is the year of the record quoted. Incidentally it is noteworthy that the presence of some continental money, apparently gathered from the west coast of France, including many coins issued from the district at the mouth of the Seine, is found to tally with two earlier records of the Chronicle ; the one of 897, which relates that the Danish army in England divided, some going into East AngUa and some into Northumbria, and they who were moneyless procured for themselves ships there and went southwards over sea to the Seine ; the other of thirteen years later, 910, when 'a great fleet came hither from the south, from Brittany, and greatly ravaged the Severn, but they there afterwards almost all perished.' A supposition that the remnants of this band united with the main Danish army might well account for the proportion of foreign money. 1 Brit. Numis, Journ. i. 9. ' The analysis of the hoard is as follows : — Enghsh Athelstan of East Anglia Ceolwulf II. of Mercia Ethelred .... Alfred the Great . . Edward the Elder Archbishop Ceolnoth Archbishop Ethelred Archbishop Plegmund Total English . 24 2 3 919 SI I I 59 1,060 'Northumbrian Ecclesiastical 2,020 Earl Sitric 2 Siefred 238 Alwald I Cnnt 2,534 Halfden 2 Continental Principally French, but some German and Italian Oriental Various Total Northumbrian 4,797 About . UlcffbU 1,047 3> 65 258 Grand Total Examined 7,000
