Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/47

Rh trouble of thus impressing. When the convenience of the practice had been experienced, and perhaps its application facilitated, it would be extended to the bronze as well as to the gold and silver currency. Although even that point has been disputed, it may be admitted as most probable that the Carnbre coins were really British money, that is to say, that they were not only current in Britain, but had been coined under the public authority of some one or more of the states of the island. This we seem to be entitled to infer, from the emblematic figures impressed on them, which distinguish them from any known Gallic or other foreign coins, and are at the same time similar to those commonly found on what appears to be the British money of a somewhat later period. The questions, however, of when, where, and by whom they were coined, still remain. Although the figures upon them are peculiar, they still bear a general resemblance to the money, or what has been supposed to be the money, of the ancient Gauls ; and, as well from this circumstance as from the whole character of the early British civilization, which appears to have been mainly borrowed from Gaul, we may presume that they were either fabricated in that country, or were at least the work of Gallic artists. It is remarkable that these coins are all formed of pure gold; and Diodorus Siculus informs us, that in no articles which they made of gold did the Gauls mix any alloy with the precious metal. As to their date, it would seem to he subsequent to the time of Cæsar, since, according to his account, as we have just seen, the Britons were then unacquainted with the use of coined money of any description; and it may be placed with most probability in the interval between his invasion and that of the Emperor Claudius—a period, as we have already endeavoured to show, during which British civilization must have made a very considerable, though unrecorded, progress.

Besides this merely pictured metallic money, however, there exist numerous British coins, or what bear the appearance of being such, which are marked not only with figures of various kinds, but also with legends in