Previous to the Norman conquest, the Danes settled in England were naturally unable to influence, in a like degree, the style of English architectural works. Their sway there was both too short and too unsettled for such a purpose: not to mention that the Danes had still much to learn from the Anglo-Saxons in the art of building; for the latter had long been Christians, and were besides settled in a country possessing abundant remains of the magnificent architectural works of the Romans. Nevertheless it is not incredible that several of the many churches and convents then and subsequently erected by Danish princes and chiefs, and especially in the northern parts of England, but which are now for the most part either rebuilt, or have entirely disappeared, may have borne the stamp of their Scandinavian origin. We are led to this opinion by the ruling inclination manifested by the ancient Northmen to let their own conceptions pierce through, even in their imitations of foreign objects. Numerous and contemporary evidences in England itself also sufficiently prove to what a remarkable extent the Danes must have devoted themselves to peaceful occupations, long before the Norman conquest. In these, indeed, which relate to only a single branch of art, the Anglo-Saxons were their teachers; still they will show that the Danes were neither wanting in a natural capacity for art, nor in faculty or will for its further development. It has been stated before that the Danes, previously to the conquest of England, were unacquainted with the art of coining money. At most they only imitated the Byzantine coins by fabricating the (so-called) “_Bracteates_,” which, however, were stamped only on one side, and were for the most part used merely as ornaments. But the art of coining was very ancient in England. It was customary among the Anglo-Saxons for the coiners to put their names on the coins struck by them. The quantity of Anglo-Saxon coins that has in the course of time been found and examined, has afforded an opportunity for inspecting and comparing a considerable number of names of coiners in England, especially from the eighth and ninth centuries until far into the thirteenth. About Edward the First’s time, the names of the coiners were no longer suffered to occupy so conspicuous a place on the coins as previously.