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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 3  1860  page 41

On Anglo-Saxon Remains Discovered Recently in various Places in Kent
 by C. Roach Smith Esq

cutting about midway between the surface and the skeleton. The scrupulous accuracy of the learned Abbé compels this piece to be rejected as a valid witness in this inquiry.
   The mounting of the coins found in Saxon graves was probably executed in Britain. The earliest known Saxon coins were of silver; and therefore these gold exotics would be looked upon with greater curiosity; but from the constant communication between this country and France, they could hardly be estimated as novelties. At all times gold coins were a favourite decoration of the female costume: they are worn at the present day; and the gold Roman imperial coins were often set in an entourage of goldsmith’s-work of great beauty. The circular pendant of mosaic-work will find its counterparts in the Faussett collection; and in that from a Frankish cemetery in the valley of the Eaulne.2 The latter is an ingeniously constructed ornament, combining the principle of the button with that of the circular Roman fibula. 

The mode of construction of these elaborate works was precisely similar to that still practised in Italy at the present day. The cubes are formed of vitreous pastes of various colours. In that from the Frankish cemetery the colours are chiefly red, blue, white, and yellow, blended with great skill, the cubes being so minute that they cannot be well distinguished without a magnifying-glass.
   Of the magnificent fibula which forms Plate III. but little need be added to the remarks made on those from Faversham, engraved in Vol. I. It belongs to the same class as Lord Amherst’s, found at Minster, which I have described fully in the Introduction to the ‘Inventorium Sepulchrale’. It is only second in size, beauty, and richness to the splendid Kingston fibula, which remains unrivalled.

1. Inventorium Sepulchrale, pl. iv. fig. 7.
2. Collectanea Antiqua, vol. iii. pl. xxxv.

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