Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/200

A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE by the inland Gauls, and as they travelled further from Marseilles the poorer the copy became, until hardly any trace of the original was discernible ; thus it is only by reference to a whole series that we can trace the origin of the British coins. Uninscribed coins have been found in Northamptonshire at Chipping Warden, Duston, Earls Barton, Farthinghoe, Kettering, Northampton. With regard to the inscribed coins it is considered that they range from Caesar's invasion, B.C. 54, to the time of Claudius, a.d. 41. They have been classed according to certain districts. Northamptonshire forms part of Sir John Evans' central district, which included Bucks, Beds, Middlesex, Essex, part of Berks, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire. The Britons had at this time a well established coinage in gold, silver and copper, and the evidence which Sir John adduces from these coins in Northamptonshire is that during the reign of Augustus and Tiberius this portion of the country was partly under the rule of Tasciovanus, whose capital was at Verulamium (St. Albans), and partly under the dominion of Andocomius (a probable contemporary of Tascio- vanus), who is thought to have reigned over what is now Oxfordshire, Beds and Bucks, and part of Northants, for his coins have not been found in any other county. Tasciovanus was succeeded by Cunobeline, the father of Caractacus, whose capital was Camulodunum (Colchester). No coins were discovered at Hunsbury, but in Northampton a gold coin was found about i 2 feet deep in some excavations at the back of what is now the Grand Hotel, then called the Dolphin. It is of light yellow gold, plain on the convex side (British coins like their prototypes the Greek coins are saucer-shaped), and having on the concave side a rude representation of a horse. It is particularly interesting, as being of the same type as one of the only two coins associated with the Late Celtic remains at Aylesford. Coins of this type have been found in south- eastern England as well as in those parts of France formerly inhabited by the Belgic Gauls. Of the inscribed coins, gold coins of Tasciovanus have been discovered at Thrapston and Oundle, silver coins at Gayton, and copper coins at Chipping Warden and Irchester. A gold coin of Andocomius was obtained from Ecton and a silver one from Duston. Coins of Cunobeline, who reigned over the Trinobantes in Essex, the Catyeuchlani and part of the Dobuni, have been found at Castor, Oundle, Irchester, Duston, Wood Burcott near Towcester, Weston-by-Weedon, Chipping Warden, Gretton and at Dingley near Market Harboro'. One of his coins from Duston is made of copper plated with gold, showing that counterfeit coinage is not a modern institution. A gold coin of Antedrigus (who ruled over lands further to the west) that was found at Brackley is considered by Sir John Evans as a stray visitant, as are also the later silver coins of the Iceni found at Castor. A gold coin of Addedomarus was found at Great Houghton. One of the most interesting as well as the rarest of the British coins found within the borders of Northamptonshire is a gold coin of the Brigantes, the largest of British tribes, who occupied the greater part of Yorkshire and Lancashire ; it 154