The leaden coffin was also in use among the Romans, not only for the reception of the body, but in many instances, for the ashes and bones. It was adopted by the christians, and continues in frequent use to the present time, among the more opulent. Alexander was buried in a golden coffin, by his successor Ptolemy; and glass coffins have been found in England. The oldest instance, on record, among us, of a coffin made of wood, is that of king Arthur, who was buried in an entire trunk of oak. It was not till the latter end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century, that coffins became in general use in England. Before that time, there was, in every parish church, a common coffin, in which the corpse was placed and conveyed on a bier, from the residence of the deceased, to the grave; it was then taken out of the coffin and interred. Some of these common coffins yet remain in country churches. Footnote 67: The gold noble, or half mark, struck by king Edward the third, in the seventeenth year of his reign, is the first money on which the arms of England appear, namely, three lions passant guardant. Footnote 68: The _three_ fleurs de lys were used, on some occasions, much earlier than this, both in France and England. There is an angel of Philip de Valois, coined in 1340, with the _three_ fleurs de lys, which was probably done for the sake of variation, king Edward having then lately taken the arms _semée_ de lys. Le Blanc mentions a charter of Philip, in 1355, with a seal of the arms in like manner. There is also a groat of king John of France, with only _three_ fleurs de lys, though he used them likewise _semée_. But Charles the sixth, who began his reign in 1380, constantly bore the _three_ lys for the arms of France, as they have been continued ever since. As the English kings altered the arms of France, in imitation of the French king, it is most likely that our Henry the fourth who was contemporary with Charles the sixth, began this practice. He did indeed bear the fleurs de lys _semée_, upon his great seal, because it was his predecessor’s, but that he bore the _three_ lys upon other occasions is most likely, for so they are seen at the head of his monument, at Canterbury, and his son Henry, afterwards Henry the fifth, in like manner, bore the _three_ fleurs de lys upon his seal, annexed to an indenture, so early as the sixth year of his father’s reign. Footnote 69: