Wright

The Ruins of the Roman City of Uriconium, at Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury Wright

This is, I believe, the first instance which has occurred in this country, in which we have had the opportunity of ascertaining what particular coins, as being then in daily circulation, an inhabitant of a Roman town in Britain, at the moment when the Roman domination in this country was expiring, carried about with him. Mr. Roach Smith, speaking of the great majority of these coins, these of the Constantine family, remarks to me-"I suspect these coins were sent into Britain even after the time of Valens, because they are all comparatively sharp and fresh. It is not improbable that the procurators at Treves and at Lugdunum may have had large stores of these coins by them, which they sent out at intervals." A consideration of these coins gives us an approximation, at least, towards the date at which Uriconium must have been destroyed; Mr. Roach Smith agrees in the opinion that a comparison of them points to the very latest period previous to the establishment of the Anglo-Saxons.