They are often turned up in agricultural work, and many farmers possess a few, but will not part with them, nor with their stone or bronze spear-heads, arrow-heads, axe-heads, and jars, as there is often some superstition that it is unlucky to let these be sold away from the neighbourhood where they were dug up.
Full descriptions of some "finds" are given in the annual issues of the Société Jersiaise, together with illustrations. The illustrations differ little as regards the types shown from those given in the works of Evans and Hawkins. There is, however, one point to be observed that is interesting and noteworthy—i.e., Gaulish and Roman coins have been found enclosed together in the same urn, thus indicating that the two coinages had concurrently come into the possession of the same person before being hidden. This appears proof of concurrent circulation. The small urn found by Mr. George Amy, of Rozel, close to the spot where the landslip occurred in 1875, is in the Jersey Museum. It is, of course, hand-made pottery, and burnt nearly black. It contained both Gaulish and Roman coins—the former, both of billon and silver, being mainly of the smaller or more rare sort, and each weighing only from 18 to 28 grains. The urn was a small one, the top having been covered by a flat stone, with a larger stone keeping this down in its place.
By consideration of the metal values of Gaulish and Roman coins turned up in the same "find," we might arrive at the relative current values as regulated and assigned at the period.
ROMAN COINS IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS
After conquest and occupation by the Romans, the Gaulish currency, as well as that of ancient Britain, was superseded by Roman issues. Mr. Edward Hawkins, in his standard work on the Silver Coins of England[C] (page 22), tersely and precisely explains what happened in England; and the Channel Islands came within the same provisions and action.
"It is natural to suppose that when the Roman power had become established in Britain, the ordinary money of that empire would form the general circulation of this country, and that British money would be for the most part, if not entirely, superseded. Gildas asserts that an edict was actually issued and enforced, ordaining that all money current in this island should bear the image and superscription of the Roman Emperor; and the circumstance of Roman coins being almost daily turned up in every part of the country amply confirms his statement. It is quite unnecessary to enter here into any description of that money, as it is perfectly well known to everyone, and numerous treatises and descriptions of it have been published in all languages."
Just as stated above, it would be but going over ground already thoroughly well trodden to treat of the different Roman coins discovered in the Channel islands. They are similar to those which have come to light on the south coast of England and in Normandy and Brittany. I will, however, append at length the following note from William Nicolle, Esq., Jurat, of Bosville, King's Cliff, Jersey, who has favoured me with particulars of Roman coins found in Jersey, and now in his possession:—
"The Roman coins in my possession are 342 in number, and form part of a find which was made in February, 1848, in the district of 'Les Quenvais,' in the parish of St. Brelade's, Jersey. They were described in a paper which was contributed to the Worcester Congress in the summer of 1848, by the late Mr. F. C. Lukis, F.S.A., the eminent Guernsey archæologist, and which was published in the 'Journal of the Archæological Association,' Vol. IV., page 272.
"Mr. Lukis says:—'By a series of sections the accumulation of sand in Les Quenvais bears marks of several inundations, quite distinct in their appearance, and varying somewhat in their directions. The soil and clay beneath this sandy mass exhibit Roman vestiges of pottery and other articles, so that we cannot be far wrong in attributing the change in this supposed fertile district to a period not far removed from the Roman subjugation of western Europe. Fragments of Roman pottery from beneath the sandy hillocks of Les Quenvais, in the possession of Col. Le Couteur, of Jersey, Aide-de-camp to Her Majesty, present indubitable marks of the possession of this district by those conquerors. And, as if a further proof were wanting, in February last a jar[D] of coarse earthenware, which contained 400 brass coins in excellent state of preservation, was dug out from the substratum, where it may have been lodged at the time of the Roman occupation of Jersey.'