Note 572 — ANCIENT ROMAN MEDICINE-STAMPS.

Hildebrand states, that in the northern or Scandinavian districts of Europe there have been found “Roman silver coins from about the middle of the first to the commencement of the third century (Vespasianus to Severus Alexander); but especially those of Hadrianus, Antoninus Pius, Aurelius, and Commodus. Along with them,” he continues, “are sometimes found various bronze articles, as statuettes, vases, and ornaments of various kinds of Roman workmanship, and apparently of the same age. These coins, etc., are usually found about the islands of Gothland and Oland, and in Scanïa. The coins are worn and clipped, so that often the legends and reverses are defaced, and the portrait alone tells by whom they were struck. The reason of this is (he suggests), that the coins came to the north after long voyages. As the Roman eagles were never planted on Swedish soil, these coins, etc., must either have been brought by the northern pirates from Roman possessions, or by merchants trading with Roman subjects. Only one gold coin (of Titus), and one ? (of Faustina the elder), are as yet known to have been found in the North.” See Hildebrand’s Monnaies Anglo-Saxonnes du Cabinet Royal de Stockholm. Introduction, pp. vi. vii. note.