Dr.

£ 8. d.

Statement of Receipts and Disbursements of the Numismatic Society, from June, 1886, to June, 1887.
THE NUMISMATIC SOCIETY IN

Cr.

ACCOUNT WITH ALFRED EVELYN COPP, TREASURER.

Secretary, for Postages, &c. (Barclay V. Head, Esq.)

1 15

2 2

8 6

0 15 0

2 10 0

1 10

0

5 0

190

"

£577 11 10

Balance in hand.

At the conclusion of the reading of the Report, Mr. Montagu, V.P., addressed the President as follows:

Mr. Evans, In the year 1883 you originated, as President of this Society, the institution of an annual Medal, of which you generously presented the dies to the Society.

As each recurring year necessitated the nomination of a fitting recipient of this medal, the Council, with whom the selection rests, has been of opinion that you were, yourself, entitled to the benefit of that selection, but you have always insisted, with greater modesty than justice, that the preference should be given to some other eminent numismatist of whom in each case it could be fairly stated that his claims were second only to those of yourself.

In this the Jubilee year, not only of the reign of our most gracious Sovereign but also of our own Society, you have been unable longer to resist the views and importunities of the Council, and I have very much pleasure in being deputed by them to present the Medal to you, on their behalf. It has been thought well that on this occasion it should be struck in gold in special commemoration not only of the auspicious nature of the year, but also of the very important services which you have rendered to the Society over a long course of years, in your capacity first as Honorary Secretary and afterwards as President.

Your indefatigable labours in the cause of Numismatic Science are widely known and appreciated both here and abroad, and there is no student of that science, particularly in connection with our English series, who is not deeply indebted to you for the recorded results of your energy and research. You were the first, practically to formulate, and certainly to put into useful shape, those morphological theories which finally led to a complete exposition on your part of the History of the Coinage of the Ancient Britons, a work which will ever remain the standard authority on that subject.

You have also, in the pages of the Numismatic Chronicle,

elucidated the very abstruse questions connected with the distinctions between the coins of Henry II, Richard I, John and Henry III, involving the settlement, final to this day, of what was formerly called the "Short-cross Question." You have lately, also, through the same medium, cleared up the equally difficult points involved in the discussion as to where the coinage of Henry VIII ends and where that of Edward VI commences. In addition to these important contributions, you have from the year 1849, when you first joined this Society, up to the present time, written many valuable papers on other subjects affecting English Numismatics and you have particularly described with interesting and instructive comments many finds of coins, amongst the most important of which have been those of Anglo-Saxon pennies in the City of London and in various parts of Ireland, and the two several finds of gold coins at St. Albans.

In connection with the latter of these your exertions with regard to the law of Treasure Trove in this country have borne fruit in the shape of the new Regulations of the Treasury, which, though scarcely adequate to the emergencies of the day, constitute an appreciable improvement upon the law as it stood.

You have also written ably and usefully on the still more complicated subject of ancient Jewish coins, and have contributed most valuable notes on the ancient Roman series, of which you possess so important a collection. Your assistance has also always been afforded without stint or jealousy to other writers on germane subjects, and your advice has been at the service at all times of all interested in antiquarian lore. In these and other departments of science the fact that you are Treasurer of the Royal Society and President of the Society of Antiquaries is conclusive not only as to your merits but also as to the appreciation of these by your fellow-workers. Your treatises on the Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain, and on the Bronze Implements and Ornaments of Great Britain, will ever be standing records of

your own powers of research and of incalculable aid to those of others. Nor have academical and other honours been wanting. You have received special distinctions from more than one University and your practical abilities have secured to you a high position in your county and in connection with other vocations in which you have been actively engaged.

I could add greatly to this varied but necessarily imperfect summary of the result of your versatile talents, but will now content myself by expressing a hope, on behalf of our Society, that you may enjoy a long life, with such health of mind and body as will enable you worthily to preside in the future, as you have in the past, over our deliberations; and I trust that you may derive some pleasure in being the possessor of this medal, the presentation of which is but an inadequate token of appreciation on the part of those with whom you have always worked so loyally and effectually.

In reply Mr. Evans said :

I accept with gratitude the high compliment paid me by the Council, which has now met with the approbation of the Society, in selecting me as the recipient of this medal. When, in 1883, I presented to the Society the dies for an honorary medal, provision was made that a member of the Council was not disqualified to be the recipient in case it was awarded by the unanimous vote of that body. I little thought, however, that I should be the first to come under this exceptional provision, and that a further exception to our ordinary course would be made by striking the medal in gold. As to how far I am deserving of the honours thus paid me, you may accept Mr. Montagu's kind estimate or not. For myself I shall always value the medal as a memorial of the goodwill of a Society with which I have been connected for a period of more than eight-and-thirty years and in which it has been my good fortune to have numbered many firm and fast friends, and by which in the capacity of its Secretary or President I have

always been treated with the utmost kindness and consideration.

The President then delivered the following address.

In addressing you upon the present occasion I need hardly remind you that the current year, 1887, is the Jubilee year not only of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, whom may God long preserve, but of our own body, the Numismatic Society of

London.

The formation of such a society was proposed and discussed at preliminary meetings held at the residence of the late Dr. John Lee, at Doctors' Commons, on June 27 and December 1, 1836, and it was finally resolved at a meeting of the friends of numismatic science, held in the apartments of the Royal Astronomical Society on Thursday evening, the 22nd of December, 1836, "That a Numismatic Society be formed." The first President was John Lee, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., who was also the treasurer. The secretaries were John Yonge Akerman, F.S.A., and Isaac Cullimore, M.R.S.L., and C. F. Barnwell, F.R.S., F.S.A.; Thomas Burgon, Sir Henry Ellis, F.R.S., F.S.A.; W. D. Haggard, F.S.A., F.R.A.S.; Edward Hawkins, F.R.S., F.S.A.; Captain W. H. Smyth, R.N., F.R.S., F.S.A.; and William Wyon, A.R.A., were appointed Members of the Council.

The first ordinary meeting of the Society was held on Thursday, the 26th January, 1837, and from that day to the present our meetings have continued to be held at their regular stated intervals.

On June 15, 1837, Dr. Lee delivered what may be termed the first anniversary address, and at that date the ordinary Members of the Society numbered a hundred and thirteen, of whom, I believe, that only one now survives, our honorary member and medallist, Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S.A. For some years after its institution the Society did not publish its own transactions, but, by arrangement, they were left for publication