The Coins of the Ancient Britons; arranged and described by
John Evans, F.S.A., F.Q.S., and engraved by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. (J. Russell Smith.)—The original theory of British coins was that there were none, which Camden exploded by publishingin his "Britannia" en- gravings of eighteen, of which only four have turned out to be Gaulish. Such a tribe of dreamers were the numismatists who followed him, that "the immortal Eckhel," in "his great work the 'Doctrine Numorum Veterum," published between 1792 and 1798, allowed the Britons no indigenous coinage. Notwithstanding this blow our antiquaries rallied, and of late years reasonable results have been arrived at. For this we must thank the Numismatic Society, and therein Mr. Akerman, the founder of the Numismatic Journal, Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Roach Smith above others. The hon. secretary of the society, Mr. Evans, has now collected the known facts and expounded the received theory of the subjeet in a very handsome, and we will add very interesting, volume. The theory is that the Macedonian stater of Philip IL being largely coined, spread over Europe, and came through Gaul into Britain. Both in Gaul and Britain it was imitated, but the type gradually degenerated, and the coin grew less, so that the worse the imitation the later the coin. So far there is little doubt as to the sound- ness of tho theory, but when Mr. Evans comes to arrange his coins and attribute them to the districts where they were coined there is, we think, much room for scepticism. Nevertheless the book is thoroughly well done and supplies a gap in literature. To give an idea of its value to students, there are no less than 355 coins admirably engraved, with a careful description of each.
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