primitive and partially civilized people, in this arbitrary imitation of a foreign type, than in any abstruse embodiment of the national creed. No precise date has yet been attempted to be assigned for the first native British coinage, but the numerous examples of Gaulish types discovered in Britain leave no room to doubt that the native Britons were familiar with such a circulating medium long prior to the Roman invasion. Nor is this the most primitive form of native currency. Several hoards have been discovered at different times in Scotland, of small gold pellets, marked with a cross or star in relief, and which, there can be little doubt, is the earliest Scottish minted money.[233] Examples of this primitive coinage are more particularly described in a subsequent chapter, among the contents of the later tumuli. But entirely apart either from this or the coinage derived from the Gauls, very remarkable discoveries of ancient foreign coins, such as those referred to above, suffice to suggest the probability that the primitive Briton had other sources from whence to acquire a knowledge of the convenience and fashion of a coined circulating medium. In the same locality where the bust of the Egyptian Isis was dug up at Exeter, numerous Greek coins have been found of late years, chiefly belonging to the autonomous Greek colonial cities in Syria and Asia Minor. Many have been discovered pertaining to Alexandria in Egypt, including coins of the Ptolemies of a very early date, frequently met with at great depths, and apparently in older strata than that of the Anglo-Roman period.[234] In making a large drain in the Fore Street of Exeter, in 1810, at a depth of twenty feet below the present pavement, an immense quantity of ancient money was found, including many early coins of the autonomous Greek cities, and along with them two British coins, one bearing the wheel and the other the horse.[235] Coins of Agrigentum, in Sicily, of Hiero I. of Syracuse, B.C. 460; of Ptolemy I. B.C. 323, and many others described and engraved in Mr. Shortt's interesting works, have been found at various times in Exeter and its neighbourhood.