NOTE ON THREE GOLD COINS FROM CRETE.

I FIND from my private Journal of June 5, 1853, that when exploring the site of Polyrrhenium, near the west end of Crete, I procured two small gold coins from a peasant living in one of the three or four houses forming the hamlet of Ligouria, situated on the northern slope of the hill upon which Polyrrhenium was situated, and nearly a mile from its acropolis.

This peasant from whom I had obtained some pottery, as well as some silver and copper coins of the city, after consulting with his wife, produced the two gold coins also, as I seemed to be a ready purchaser of antiques, and not likely to compromise him with the Turkish authorities.

These coins, with some others in silver, he obtained from an ancient tomb on his land, to the south of, and a little above the hamlet, where they often fell in with interments when cultivating the spot. But the greatest secrecy was necessary in opening the tombs to prevent its being known to the Turkish authorities.

The third gold coin, which is the largest of the three, was brought to me a few weeks afterwards, to my house at Khaleppa, near Khania, where I was living during the stay of my ship in Suda Bay, whilst the survey of the western part of the island was in progress; and I was led

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to believe that it was also found at Polyrrhenium by the peasant who brought it, and who evidently knew of my having bought the other two there.

The three coins certainly have a common character, from their being so remarkably thin, their small size, and from having a bird in flight on the obverse of each of the three. There is, however, a marked difference between the largest of the three and the two I first procured from the site of Polyrrhenium.

These two gold coins weigh 10 grains each, roughly, they are evidently from the same mint and locality, for the birds in flight on each of the obverse and concave surfaces of these coins are so identical that it seems as if they were struck with the same die. Their reverse sides, however, which are flat, have an anochoë on one of them (Fig. 1), and a bee on the other (Fig. 2), and seem as perfect as when first struck.

Thus the bird in flight to the left on all three coins seems to indicate a monetary alliance. Now the only city in Crete whose coins represented a similar bird in flight was Lyttus, between which and Polyrrhenium there was an alliance, as we know, before Lyttus was surprised and destroyed by the Cnossians. From this destruction. it never recovered; and the remnant of the inhabitants who had escaped slaughter took refuge with the Lappeans in the central and western part of Crete, with whom they were in alliance.

The third and largest of the three coins weighs 12} grains, roughly taken, and evidently belonged to a city and mint where the art was ruder than in the case of the two coins procured at, and most probably struck at, Polyrrhenium.

Although the three coins have a bird in flight on the

obverses, and thus suggest that they were struck to mark some common cultus, yet the third differs so much in type, as well as in size and weight, from the other two, that it was no doubt struck at some different city, where the art was ruder.

As the flying bird on the obverse of this coin more resembles an eagle in flight, as on coins of Lyttus, than do the birds upon the other, it may have been struck at that city. The coins of Lyttus are, as a rule, of ruder work than those of Polyrrhenium; and this may be accounted for by the situation, which precluded it from easy communication with Greece, and thus tended to limit the advance of its artistic skill. But there are other peculiarities on the coin that require to be noticed.

As its reverse side seems at first sight to have only four rays of a star upon it, radiating from, but not in contact. with, a central boss, it has somewhat the appearance of those early coins that have an incuse square upon them, and produces the impression of being of an earlier time than rightly belongs to it. But on examining it closely it is seen that it shows a blur upon it, that nearly obliterates the fifth ray. This blur I was at first inclined to take for a counter-mark, from its likeness to a bird with a long neck standing upon something, with the wings apparently closed. Such a counter-mark no doubt might have been placed upon it by some neighbour city to that which struck the coin.

A closer examination has, however, convinced me that the bird-like object is not a counter-mark, but merely the result of a defect in the die or in the striking of this particular specimen.

T. SPRATT,

VICE-ADMIRAL.

XV.

DISCOVERY OF A HOARD OF ROMAN COINS

AT SPRINGHEAD.

SPRINGHEAD, near Gravesend, has for some time been known as the site of Roman remains; and it has supplied, among numerous Roman coins, some new British types of a late period, engraved and described in Dr. Evans's Coins of the Ancient Britons.

The site is that of an extensive mansio or mutatio, recorded in the second Iter of the Itinerary of Antoninus as Vagniaca, nine miles from Durobriris, Rochester, and eighteen from Noriomagus, towards Londinium. The foundations of walls two feet or more thick, contribute to show the importance of the station. These walls can be traced, in dry seasons, by the parched corn and herbage in the corn-fields, which mark them clearly, affording a tempting inducement for excavating to any earnest and wealthy explorer. A little beyond the limits of the Roman station, sepulchral interments have been discovered from time to time. Among these was one of an unusually rich and interesting character, found in 1801, and recorded by the Rev. Peter Rashleigh in the Archæologia. In addition to what I have published in the Collectanea Antiqua,' the late Mr. Silvester informed me that nearly half a ton of horse

' Vol. i., p. 110, and Plates XL. and XLI.

shoes had been dug up, near the head of the spring, (which gives name to the place,) not far from the foundations of a Roman house. These horse-shoes, from a few shown to me, were unquestionably Roman. They may have been forged upon the spot, or brought there for public and private service.

As some of my readers may be induced to explore the district, I may mention that the Roman road, popularly called Watling Street, runs in a direct line from Dover to London, passing by Springhead, where it is destroyed, into Swanscombe wood, where it was well preserved a few years since, and through the town of Dartford. In the High Street it was, not long since, laid open, and then noticed by Mr. John Harris, of Belvedere, who describes it as paved with boulders, at about three feet below the present surface. At the upper part of Strood it took a slight curve to the left, keeping on the southern side of a British trackway which, called "the old road," leads to Springhead, by Cobham Park and Singlewell; and, it may be inferred, on to London. The Roman via accompanied it on the high ground on the south. Though, in the open fields it has been ploughed down, it is very perceptible in Cobham Park. It was necessary for the Romans to have a high and dry transit, especially in the winter when the British trackway would be often choked up with snow. This adaptation of the British lines of traffic must have been general. I noticed it in walking, a few years since, with Messrs. Harris and Law, along the Roman road from Ewell to Chichester.

The hoard of coins, the chief object of these notes, was recently found at Springhead, and is in number 114. It extends from Gordianus the Third to Tetricus Junior, chiefly in billon.