Page:VCH Surrey 1.djvu/333

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ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS represented, and 174 specimens from this hoard were thus added to the national collection. Another hoard of the same period and character came to light during the construction of the railway line from West Croydon through Selhurst and Thornton Heath to Balham. In the manor of Whitehorse and not far from Collier's Water Lane the labourers found, about 2 feet below the surface, a stone chest without a lid. This was soon disposed of, and a mouldering canvas bag recovered from the ruins containing about 250 Anglo-Saxon silver coins, most of which were in fine pre- servation, a few small ingots of silver, part of a silver neck-ornament, and two or three Cufic coins. 1 As at Dorking, pennies were found of Aethelweard and Eadmund, Aethelred, Ceolnoth and Burgred, about two hundred belonging to the last named. The latest are those of Alfred, but all belong to the earliest years of his reign, being of the type of Burgred, and render it almost a certainty that the deposit was made between the years 872 and 875. The latter date is supplied by some coins of Charles the Bald, all of which present the title of king, which he exchanged for that of emperor on the death of his nephew Lothaire in that year. 1 The find also included a penny of Louis le Debonnaire (81440), a son of Charlemagne, and some fragments of dinars struck by Haroun-al-Raschid, the famous Khalif of Bagdad (786- 809). These have little bearing on the date of the hoard, but are interesting as showing the extent of European commerce in those days ; they may have been brought to England by the merchants of Marseilles, who trafficked with the east, or by the overland route through Russia to the Baltic. The ingots and portions of silver ornaments seem to have been destined for use as money rather than for the melting-pot, as some at least are almost exact multiples of the penny. 8 1 J. Corbet Anderson, Croydon, p. 115; see following pages for illustrations of the coins, bag and fragments.

  • Numismatic Chronicle, new ser. ii. 303. 3 Ibid, new ser. vi. 233.

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