Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/92

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76 Note wr lea Fouillea extcuttes a la Madeleine de Bernay en Fevrier 1858. M. Charma n'a trouvd qu'un seul vase en terre blanche vernisse" de vert et entierement semblable pour la forme a ceux de Bernay. Ce vase h collet dentele" a la main contenait du charbon et est perc6 de trois rangs de trous pratique's apres la cuisson.' DCS trois cimetieres de 16preux que nous venons de citer, celui de Bernay est incomparablemcnt le plus riche ; aussi nous ne terminerons pas cet article sans felicitcr M. Metayer de sa precieuse de'couverte, ni sans applaudir a un si heureux debut archeologique. L'ABBE COCHET. Dieppe, le 1 CT Mai, 1858. Xole on the tlixcotcry of Coins cut into halves and quarters, alluded to in the Abbe Cochet's communication. The discovery of silver pennies cut into halves and quarters is more common in England than the learned Abbe supposes, but is apt to be overlooked by numis- matists. In the great find of coins which took place at Cuerdale, in Lancashire, in 1810, were several pennies of Alfred and Edward the Elder so divided. The same was the case with coins of Edward the Confessor, found at Thwaite, in Suffolk, and with those of "Villiam the Conqueror, discovered at Beaworth, in Hampshire, in 1833. On the latter discovery, Mr. Hawkins has remarked (Silver Coins of England, p. 72), that the halves and quarters were probably issued from tbe mints in that form, as the whole collection had evidently never been in circu- lation. Besides the half-coin of Eustace Count of Boulogne, mentioned above, p. 75, the discovery at Worcester comprised about thirteen halves and as many quarters of pennies of Henry II. The collections in the British Museum contain specimens of divided coins of nearly every monarch from Alfred to Henry III., with whose reign they cease. The practice of dividing the coins no doubt arose from the scarcity of small change, which was in part remedied under the reign of Edward I. by the coinage of halfpence and farthings. A. W. F. Charma, Rapport sur lea Fouilles executes au Catillon, pp. 22, 23, pi. fig. 13. Mem. de la Soc. dea Antiq. de Norm. t. xix. p. 496, pi. fig 13.