Note 568 — Chapter IX · BRIDE’S BAIRNS
Reading edition
It is a miracle that this and the other coins illustrated on page 364 did not go into the dustbin. The official estimate of their value and interest is expressed in the following reference from Hawkin’s Silver Coins of England, p. 17:—
“After the final departure of the Romans, about the year 450, the history of the coinage is involved in much obscurity; the coins of that people would of course continue in circulation long after the people themselves had quitted the shores, and it is not improbable that the rude and uncouth pieces, which are imitations of their money, and are scarce because they are rejected from all cabinets and thrown away as soon as discovered, may have been struck during the interval between the Romans and Saxons.”
The italics are mine, and comment would be inadequate. Happily, in despite of “the practised numismatist,” Time, which antiquates and hath an art to make dust of all things, hath yet spared these minor monuments.