discovered in Kent, are posterior to any heretofore recorded, so far as the presence of coins may determine.
   "When we find in a grave a coin of Justinian, who reigned from A.D. 527 to A.D. 565, we immediately arrive at the conclusion that the interment could not possibly have taken place prior to the reign of that emperor; and we may infer that the adjoining graves, at least, were not earlier. Thus far our ground, retrospectively, is sure; but not so in the other direction. We cannot be certain even that this coin was deposited at any period during the long reign of Justinian. The evidence supplied by the two gold Merovingian pieces is about equal to that afforded by the coin of Justinian. They are probably of the middle of the sixth century, before which period we cannot consider them to have been buried; but we can by no means so limit them prospectively.    Unfortunately these coins range over a rather extended period of time; and as they bear merely 

the names of towns and of moneyers, it is seldom their precise date can be determined. The coin of Justinian, it may be observed, though bearing the name of that prince, is one of those numerous imitations struck by the Frankish kings. This fact may weigh somewhat against the probability of the coin being deposited in the Anglo-Saxon grave during the first half of the sixth century. Contemporaneous with the Merovingian gold are the earliest Anglo-Saxon silver coins, commonly called sceatas, some of which were found by Mr. J. P. Bartlett, in one of the tumuli upon Breach Downs, near Kingston, in Kent. (See ‘Collectanea Antiqua,’ vol. ii. pl. vi.) Although, unfortunately, these early Saxon coins, like the Merovingian, bear no inscription to guide us to the precise period when they were struck, they serve to cumulate testimony, which throws the date of some of the graves in a descending direction."
  The looped gold coins found, together with a Roman