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                       THE COINAGES
                          OF THE
                      CHANNEL ISLANDS.

                            BY

               LIEUTENANT-COLONEL B. LOWSLEY,

                 ROYAL ENGINEERS (RETD.).


  Author of Contributions on "The Coins and Tokens of Ceylon" (_Numismatic
  Chronicle, Vol. XV._); "The XVIIth Century Tokens of Berkshire"
  (_Williamson's Edition of Boyne's XVIIth Century Tokens_); "Berkshire
  Dialect and Folk Lore, with Glossary" (_the Publication of the English
  Dialect Society_), &c., &c., &c.

                          London:
                 VICTORIA PRINTING WORKS,
  118 STANSTEAD ROAD, FOREST HILL, AND 15 KIRKDALE, SYDENHAM.

                           1897.




                           INDEX.

                                                          PAGE

  GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON COINAGES FOR THE CHANNEL
  ISLANDS                                                    1

  THE EARLIEST COINS OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS                  4

  ROMAN COINS IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS                         7

  ON EARLY IMPORTED COINS AND THEIR VALUES                   9

  THE COATS OF ARMS OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS                  26

  THE JERSEY SILVER TOKENS OF 1813                          28

  COPPER AND BRONZE COINAGES OF JERSEY FROM 1841            30

  ON GUERNSEY COINS FROM THE MIDDLE AGES                    33

  COPPER AND BRONZE COINAGES OF GUERNSEY FROM 1830          37

  SILVER COUNTERMARKED GUERNSEY CROWN                       38

  CHANNEL ISLANDS COPPER TOKENS                             39

  SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES                                       40




The Coinages of the Channel Islands.

BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL B. LOWSLEY, (Retired) Royal Engineers.

  Author of Contributions on "The Coins and Tokens of Ceylon"
  (_Numismatic Chronicle_, _Vol. XV._); "The XVIIth Century Tokens of
  Berkshire" (Williamson's Edition of Boyne's XVIIth Century Tokens);
  "Berkshire Dialect and Folk Lore, with Glossary" (the Publications
  of the English Dialect Society), &c., &c., &c.




GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON COINAGES FOR THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.


Before treating of the Channel Islands coinages in detail, it may be of
interest briefly to notice in order the various changes and the
influences which led to these.

The earliest inhabitants of the islands of whom anything is known were
contemporaneous with the ancient Britons of Druidical times. Jersey and
Guernsey are still rich in Druidical remains. The Table-stone of the
Cromlech at Gorey is 160 feet superficial, and the weight, as I have
made it, after careful calculation, is about 23-3/4 tons. It rests on
six upright stones, weighing, on an average, one ton each. In the very
complete work recently edited by E. Toulmin Nicolle[A] is the following
interesting note:--

"That traces of the old Northmen, which were once obscure, have now
become clear and patent; that institutions, long deemed Roman, may be
Scandinavian; that in blood and language there are many more foreign
elements than were originally recognized, are the results of much
well-applied learning and acumen. But no approximation to the proportion
that these foreign elements bear to the remainder has been obtained;
neither has the analysis of them gone much beyond the discovery of
those which are referred to Scandinavia. Of the tribes on the mainland,
those which in the time of Caesar and in the first four centuries of our
era have the best claim to be considered as the remote ancestors of the
early occupants of the islanders, are the Curiosilites, the Rhedones,
the Osismii, the Lemovices, the Veneti, and the Unelli--all mentioned by
Caesar himself, as well as by writers who came after him. A little later
appear the names of the Abrincatui and the Bajucasses. All these are
referable to some part of either Normandy or Brittany, and all seem to
have been populations allied to each other in habits and politics. They
all belonged to the tract which bore the name of Armorica, a word which
in the Keltic means the same as Pomerania in Sclavonic--_i.e._, the
country along the seaside."

[A] "The Channel Islands." By the late David Thomas Ansted, M.A., and
the late Robert Gordon Latham, M.A. Revised and Edited by E. Toulmin
Nicolle. Published by W. H. Allen and Co., 13, Waterloo Place, London.

All evidences that can be gathered would tend to prove that before the
time of the Romans the Channel Islands were but thinly populated. There
are no traces of decayed large towns nor records of pirate strongholds,
and the conclusion is that the inhabitants were fishermen, and some
living by hunting and crude tillage. The frequent Druidical remains show
the religion which obtained. Any coins in use in those days would be
Gaulish, of the types then circulated amongst the mainland tribes above
named.

The writer of the foregoing notes considers that the earliest history of
the Channel Islands is as follows (page 284):--

"1. At first the occupants were Bretons--few in number--pagan, and
probably poor fishermen.

"2. Under the Romans a slight infusion of either Roman or Legionary
blood may have taken place--more in Alderney than in Jersey--more in
Jersey than in Sark.

"3. When the Litus Saxonicum was established, there may have been
thereon lighthouses for the honest sailor, or small piratical holdings
for the corsair, as the case might be. There were, however, no emporia
or places either rich through the arts of peace, or formidable for the
mechanism of war.

"4. When the Irish Church, under the school of St. Columbanus, was in
its full missionary vigour, Irish missionaries preached the Gospel to
the islanders, and amongst the missionaries and the islanders there may
have been a few Saxons of the Litus.

"5. In the sixth century some portion of that mixture of Saxons, Danes,
Chattuarii, Leti, Goths, Bretons, and Romanized Gauls, whom the Frank
kings drove to the coasts, may have betaken themselves to the islands
opposite.

"To summarise--the elements of the population nearest the Channel
Islands were:--(1) original Keltic; (2) Roman; (3) Legionary; (4) Saxon;
(5) Gothic; (6) Letic; (7) Frank; (8) Vandal--all earlier than the time
of Rollo, and most of them German; to which we may add, as a possible
element, the Alans of Brittany.

"That the soldiers of the Roman garrison were not necessarily Roman is
suggested by the word "Legionary." Some of them are particularly stated
to have been foreign. There is indeed special mention of the troop of
cavalry from Dalmatia--"Equites Dalmatae."

The inference from the above, as regards coins current in the Channel
Islands prior to the Norman conquest of England, would clearly be that,
subsequent to the circulation of the first uninscribed Gaulish coins as
imitated from the Phillippus types, there followed the well-struck Roman
issues, which, in course of time, were superseded by the coinages used
and introduced by later invaders and settlers.

British-struck coins of the Saxon kings are rarely found in the Channel
Islands, the coins used at the Saxon period of England being doubtless
drawn by these islands from Normandy and Brittany. There have never, so
far as is known, been regal or state mints established in the Channel
Islands, with the exception of the strange venture by Colonel Smyth in
the reign of King Charles I., which will be fully noted in turn
hereafter.

"Freluques" and "enseignes" also perhaps appear to have been struck in
Guernsey, and a few copper tokens, as will be described, were introduced
by banks and firms. But from the time of the Romans until the present
century, French and other foreign money has been imported, and formed
the recognized currency.




THE EARLIEST COINS OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS


As referred to in the preceding general notes, the earliest coins known
to have been in use in the Channel Islands are of the same types as used
at the time on the near coast of France. They are styled Gaulish, and
are generally of the following description:--

_O._ Sinister head in profile; nose, lips, eyes, and ears expressed by
duplicate lines; tracery or ornamentation in front of the face, and
profuse rolls of curling hair.

_R._ Figure of a horse, extravagantly drawn and decorated, and with
ornaments or gear of some kind above and below. Often the mane of the
horse is arranged and curled, as if specially so dressed for parade or
show, and almost suggests decorations as still sometimes adopted by
American Indian or other barbarian chiefs. There are reins, too, in some
instances, and these are sometimes held by a rough representation of an
arm and hand. The legs of the horse always indicate gallopping. The
symbols underneath it are usually either (1) the wild boar, as perhaps
indicative of the most important local wild beast in the chase; (2) the
chariot wheel, as representing that the horse would draw this vehicle,
there not being room to show the whole on the coin fully and in rear of
the horse; (3) the implement described by Sir John Evans[B] as a
"lyre-shaped object." It would be most interesting to ascertain what
this instrument--which is frequently delineated--may really be. It might
be a musical production of the bagpipe character, or a head-dress, or a
warlike weapon. An extensive museum or collection of very ancient
implements should solve the problem.

[B] "The Coins of the Ancient Britons." By Sir John Evans, K.C.B.,
F.S.A., F.G.S. Published by J. Russell Smith, 36, Soho Square, London.

As regards the metal of which the coins are made, Sir John Evans, at
page 128 of his work, states as follows:--

"These coins are formed of _billon_ or base silver, which appears to
vary considerably in the amount of its alloy. From an analysis made by
De Caylus (Donop. Medailles Gallo Gaeeliques, page 24) of two coins,
their compositions were found to be as follows:--

                   A.            B.

  Silver        .0413        .1770
  Copper        .8414        .7954
  Tin           .1166        .0265
  Iron          .0005        .0009
  Gold          .0002        .0002
                ------        ------
                1.0000        1.0000

"The weight of the larger pieces ranges from 80 to 105 grains, and that
of the smaller coins is about 25 grains."

It will be observed from the above analysis how considerably the
proportions of the white metals, as silver and tin, vary in these coins,
and this variation, as regards metallic composition, is so universal
that amongst a large number in the same "find" you will even, on
cleaning the coins, see some of them look as if made of silver, and the
colour vary, until you reach some that appear hardly better than wholly
of copper. It would be very interesting to know where the metal or ore
for these coinages was procured from. There must have been a natural
mixture of most of the metals.

I have looked through a "find" of more than 200 Jersey Gaulish coins,
which are in the possession of R. R. Lempriere, Esq. They were turned up
by the plough on his manor of Rozel; and whatever covering had enclosed
them had either gone to decay, or become broken up, as they were quite
loose. He had cleaned a few of them. Even to the eye the metallic
composition varied greatly--some being of the colour of silver, and some
lowering to that of copper. In this lot there were but two of the
smaller size of 25 grains, and I think that proportion may perhaps give
some indication as to the relative rarity of the two coins; for at a
rough estimate one seems to meet only about one in a hundred, which is
of the smaller kind. The larger Gaulish coins are common; large "finds"
of the types formerly used in the Channel Islands having been made on
the adjacent mainland of Normandy and Brittany, and also on the south
coast of England.

Sir John Evans mentions (page 128) the hoard at Mount Batten, near
Plymouth (_Numismatic Journal_, Vol. I., page 224), and that in the
_Arch. Assoc. Journal_, Vol. III., page 62, is an account of a find of
them at Avranches, written by Mr. C. Roach Smith; also in 1820 nearly
1,000 were discovered in Jersey; and previously, in 1787, there had been
a find in that island. The manor of Rozel seems to have been most rich
in furnishing specimens. In addition to the number in possession of the
seigneur of Rozel, as before referred to, there are from that district
of the island collections at the St. Helier Museum, and with Lady
Marett, Wm. Nicolle, Esq., Dr. Le Cronier, E. C. Cable