Excerpt from The Antiquary, Vol. 36
At the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries held on November 23, the following gentlemen were elected Fellows: Revs. F. J. Eld and Henry Norris, and Messrs. H. E. M. Baylis, C. F. Bell, W. Bemrose, T. B. Cato, H. R. H. Southam, R. Steele, and R. B. Turton.
"While looking on at the excavation of the last small chamber in the south-west angle of the Vestal Convent this afternoon," wrote the Globe"s Rome correspondent on November 17, "a workman had the good fortune to light upon a spadeful of gold coins. When the mud had been washed from them, they were found to be 370 in number, and were in good condition. They belong to Anthemius, the Byzantine Emperor, whom Ricimer killed, and whose death was followed by the sacking of Rome in A.D. 472. Probably the person who secreted this little fortune under the pavement in the convent which a hundred years previously had been that of the Vestals, perished in the sack, and his or her secret has only just come to light. It is noteworthy that this find has taken place within twenty yards of the famous hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins discovered on November 8, 1883. The present coins show on one side the figure of the Emperor with the legend "D. N. Anthemius," and on the reverse two figures, with the legend "Salus Reipublic?." On the exergue, "Comob.""
Referring to the same discovery, Professor Lanciani, writing in the Athen?um of December 2, remarked: "Discoveries of this kind are by no means a rare occurrence in Rome. Six thousand four hundred brass coins were found in 1880 in a drain near the tomb of Sulpicius Platorinus, in the Trastevere; and almost as many in 1876 in another sewer near the present Piazza di Magnanapoli, on the Quirinal. This practice may help us to explain, to a certain extent, the presence of an enormous mass of coins in the bed of the Tiber. During the dredging operations of the last decade about twelve hundred pieces per month were brought up to the surface by the dredgers. In desperate cases coins may have been thrown directly into the Tiber to prevent their falling a prey to the barbarians; but it is also possible that a fair percentage may have been washed down from the sewers into the bed of the river."
A woman when singling plants in a turnip-field at Dowmain, Huntly, Aberdeenshire, in July last, picked up a gold coin about the size of a sovereign. It was sent to Dr. Cramond, Cullen, for identification, who on inquiry of the Curator of Coins, Antiquarian Museum, Edinburgh, found that it was a ducat of William I., Duke of Geldres (A.D. 1377-1393). The coin weighs 54 grains, and is in excellent preservation. The obverse bears the inscription will. DVX. Gelr. Com. A., the reverse benedictvs qvi venit In Nomine. In recent years two other interesting gold coins have been found in the north, the one an aureus of the Emperor Vespasian, found at Inverurie, the other a "lion" of James I., found in digging a grave at Walla Kirk, in the parish of Glass. The "lion" weighed 52? grains, and was also in very good preservation.
Professor Hales read a paper on "Primrose Hill, Regent"s Park," before the Hampstead Antiquarian and Historical Society on November 17. The first name of the hill, he remarked, was probably Barrow Hill, and was so called because of the existence of a barrow, of which there were many proofs in existence.
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