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.