The 1955 Dover Treasure Trove

THE 1955 DOVER TREASURE TROVE By R. H. M. DOLLEY, F.S.A. (Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum) IN May, 1955, workmen laying a gas-main in Market Street, Dover, unearthed a small leaden casket containing a large hoard of silver coins. The form of the casket suggests a money-box, and the depth at which it was found, some two to three feet below the present ground level, is consistent with it having been concealed beneath a medieval floor, but unfortunately the site was not amenable to a full archaeological investigation. The workmen reported theh find to the local museum with commendable promptitude, and were duly named the finders at the subsequent inquest, where a verdict of treasure trove was recorded. They will, of course, receive the full market value of the coins they surrendered, and the correctness of theh conduct is the more to be appreciated because the hoard has a scholarly significance out of all proportion to the commercial value of the coins. The contents of the hoard may be summarized as follows: Groats \ Groats Pence Halfpence Farthings England Ireland Scotland France Brabant Hainault Holland Brescia 2 . . 36 1 — 1 1 56 224 344 13 41 61 226 344 49 1 2 1 1 13 626 2 3 685 Also one copper disc. The peculiar importance of the hoard lies in the fact that the English groats are both of Edward I. Hitherto no English find has been recorded which contained Edward I groats, and it has even been suggested that the coins were never current, although quite rightly the suggestion has not found favour with numismatists. Even so, it was a little disturbing that the only reported occurrence of the Edward I groat was in an Irish find, of which the inadequate record scarcely inspires confidence. 62 PLATE I O-CvCAS'j SOME SILVER COIXS FROM THE DOVER TREASURE TROVE [face p . 63 THE 1955 DOVER TREASURE TROVE A full account of the new hoard from Dover will appear in the British Numismatic Journal, where a number of purely numismatic problems will have to be discussed at some length, and in particular the highly controversial question of the attribution of the French gros tournois and mailles tierces with the name of Philip. It is to be hoped, however, that the summary that follows will suffice to give an accurate impression of the hoard, and in particular of the predominance of Scots and Irish coins, the former accounting for almost exactly half of the whole hoard and the latter for a third. A selection of the coins is illustrated on the accompanying Plate, and it will be seen that virtually all are in mint condition, one of the outstanding characteristics of the whole find. If one piece should be singled out for special mention, it is perhaps the grosso of Brescia. In itself a rare coin, its occurrence in this hoard was quite unexpected, and the figures of Saints Jovita and Faustinus are in striking contrast with the formalized patterns of the French gros tournois and mailles tierces. ENGLAND EDWARD I (1272-1307) MINT OF LONDON GROATS FOX, Class I I I (1280-81) 2 PENCE Long-cross issue with the name of Henry III, Lawrence Class VII (c. 1275-78) 1 3 1 8 1 3 2 2 2 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 Fox, Class Ic Id II Hlb IIIc IHg IVa IVb IVe IVe/c? V VIb VIII FARTHINGS Fox, Class H I II VIII (1279) (1279) (1280) (1280-81) (1280-81) (1280-81) (1282-83) (1282-83) (1282-83) (1282-83) (1284-?) (c. 1290?) (1294-1300) (1280) (1280-81) (1294-1300) 63 THE 1955 DOVER TREASURE TROVE MLNT OF BRISTOL PENNY Fox, Class II (1280) MINT OF CANTERBURY PENCE Fox, Class Hlb IHg IVb IVd V MLNT OF DURHAM PENCE Fox, Class II IHg MINT OF LINCOLN PENCE Fox, Class IIIc (1280-81) (1280-81) (1282-83) (1282-83) (1284-?) (1280) (1280-81) (1280-81) 1 1 2 1 6 MLNT OF NEWCASTLE PENCE Fox, Class Hid (BNJ) (1280-81) 3 MINT OF YORK (a) Royal PENCE Fox, Class Hid (BNJ) (1280-81) 3 (b) Archiepiscopal PENNY Fox, Class Hid (BNJ) (1280-81) 1 IRELAND HENRY III (1216-72) (posthumous?) EDWARD I (1272-1307) MINT OF DUBLIN PENCE Moneyer Davi 1 MINT OF DUBLIN (coinage of 1279-?) PENCE Allen, Class B 6 C 19 64 THE 1955 DOVER TREASURE TROVE D (including one mule) 58 E (including three mules) 10 F (including nineteen mules) 35 From irregular (but official?) dies 10 From barbarous dies 1 HALFPENNY Allen, Class E? 1 MINT OF WATERFORD (comage of c. 1280) PENOE Allen, Class C 5 D 79 HALFPENNY Allen, Class D 1 SCOTLAND ALEXANDER III (1249-86) Coinage of c. 1280-85 STERLINGS Long single-cross sterlings a 344 (Since the Burns varieties present no obvious chronological or geographical pattern they are not here distinguished.) FRANCE Louis IX (1226-70) GROS TOURNOIS Normal type (coinage of 1266-70) Lafaurie 188 4 PHJLIP III (1270-85) or PHHIP IV (1285-1314) GROS TOURNOIS Round O Lafaurie 204 1 Round O Lafaurie 217 19 Oval O Lafaurie 218 12 MAILLES TIERCES Round O Lafaurie 223 13 BRABANT JEAN I (1261-94) or JEAN I I (1294-1312) MINT OF BRUSSELS GROS Normal type I 65 « THE 1955 DOVER TREASURE TROVE HAINAULT JEAN D'AVESNES (1280-1304) MINT OF VALENCIENNES STERLINGS Variants of Chautard 23-27 2 HOLLAND FLORIS V (1256-96) MINT OF DORDRECHT GROS Normal type 1 BRESCIA ANONYMOUS COINAGE OF LATE THIRTEENTH CENTURY GROSSO Cf. CNI, 14-16 1 To estabhsh the date of the hoard as a whole is not so easy. As far as the English coins are concerned, an absolute terminus ante quern seems afforded by the total absence of coins of the prolific Fox Classes IX and X, while the presence of only one penny and one farthing of Class VIII may suggest a date nearer 1295 than 1300. The absence of coins of the Berwick mint which only opened in 1296 might seem to bear this out, but this particular piece of evidence is vitiated by the absence of any Scots pieces of Baliol. Were it not for the solitary penny and farthing of Class VIII, the English coins would have argued for a date ten years earlier, and it is indeed remarkable that a date c. 1285 should also be suggested both by the Scots and by the Irish pence in the hoard. The 344 coins from Scotland are all of Alexander I l l ' s second coinage, and are presumably to be dated to the quinquennium 1280-85, though there is the possibility, indeed probability, that some are posthumous. What is remarkable is that a hoard allegedly deposited after 1306—if we follow the accepted chronology of the French coins— should contain not a single penny of Bahol, nor an Irish coin apparently later in date than c. 1290, that is unless we are prepared to reject Allen's convincing equation of his Class G, totally lacking in this hoard, with Fox Class VII in England. On balance we are probably justified in accepting that the English, Scots and Irish coins indicate a date not substantially later than 1295. It is here that the question of the date of the Continental coins becomes all-decisive. On the basis of traditional attributions we are confronted with groats of Louis IX, Philip I I I and Phihp IV, and a run of thirdgroats dated to the very end of the year 1306. In other words, the 66 THE 1955 DOVER TREASURE TROVE French third-groats are ten years later than anything else in the hoard, for even the long 0 groats of Philip IV are not dated much after 1295. At this stage it would be rash to prophesy the outcome of the thorough investigation that is needed into the chronology of the French series, but it would seem that the third-groats attributed to the reform of 1306 belong to the pre-debasement coinage of 1270 to 1295. Whether they will be dated more narrowly seems unlikely unless more finds occur, but the present writer feels that their natural position is somewhere within the decade 1280-90. The other Continental pieces are not sufficiently numerous greatly to affect the issue. The Brabant groat is usually placed after 1294, but the Diest find does suggest, to put it no more > strongly, that it should be put before 1285. The Holland groat cannot well be after 1296 and could be much earlier. The two Hainault sterlings have been dated convincingly to the quinquennium 1280-85, while the anonymous grosso from Brescia cannot be dated by Italian numismatists more narrowly than c. 1254-c. 1337! Of course, many of the inconsistencies of the find are readily explained if we accept that the container was, in fact, a species of money-box where addition was easy and subtraction virtually impossible. The writer of this provisional note feels that in the light of our present knowledge the most likely explanation of the hoard is that it was put together over a period of roughly a decade, and hastily concealed at a date shortly after 1295. It was a period when repeated efforts were being made to control the importation into England of foreign money, and Dover was, of course, one of the focal points of entry, so much so that in 1299 a special control-barrier was set up in order to reheve foreign merchants firmly but politely of their continental money. Even before that, however, travellers were subjected to a close scrutiny, and it is not impossible that we are to associate the hoard with the outbreak of the French war in 1296. REFERENCES Fox, E., and J. S., " Numismatic History of the Reigns of Edward I, II and III ", British Numismatic Journal, Vols. VI-X. ALLEN, D. F., " The Boyton Find of Edward I and I I ", Numismatic Chronicle, 1936. BURNS, E., The Coinage of Scotland, 1887. LAFAURIE, J., Les Monnaies des Rois de France, 1951. CHAUTARD, J., Imitations des Monnaies au Type Esterlin, 1872. Corpus Nummorum Italicorum, IV (Lombardia—Zecche Minore), 1913. 67 THE 1965 DOVER TREASURE TROVE KEY TO PLATE 1. London penny of Edward I with the name of Henry III. 2. Edward I, London groat, 1280-81. 3. Edward I, London farthing, c. 1295. 4. Edward I, London penny, o. 1295. 5. Edward I, Canterbury penny, 1282-83. 6. Edward I, Durham penny, 1280-81. 7. Edward I, York penny, 1280-81. 8. Alexander III, sterling, o. 1280-85. 9. Hainault sterling, o. 1280-85. 10. Dublin penny with the name of Henry III. 11. Grosso of Brescia—late thirteenth century. 12. Waterford halfpenny, c. 1280. 13. Maille tierce of Philip III or IV. 14. Gros tournois of Louis IX. 15. Brabant gros of Jean I or Jean II. 16. Holland gros of Floris V. 68