Eustace.
- A lion passant to the right; underneath, two double shackle bolts with a bar between them; two
annulets above, two crosses in front, EISTAOhIVS. Rev. escarbuncle fleury; various ornaments occupy
the place of the legend. (282). Sn. p. 6. A. Rud. ii. 2. MB. 1.
- Half length figure to the right, holding a sword, pointed bonnet on the head; one or more
ornaments in the field, EVSTACIVS. Rev. cross raguled, within a quatrefoil having an annulet at the
corners and in the spandrils, EBORACI TDEFT. Rud. ii. 1. MB. 1. Pembroke, pt. iv. pl. 4.
- Another speciment in the Museum is without the annulets in the spandrils, and instead of a legend
are a few unmeaning letters reversesd and alternating with various ornaments, CBIOE+ [B and E
upside down]. (283). MB. All the pieces are of good silver.
Eustace was the elder son of Stephen, and is supposed to have struck these coins by virtue of a licence
from his father, while he was resident, as Governor, at York, the name of which city appears upon one
of them, No. 2. The additional letters after the name of the city have been considered the name of a
moneyer, as they resemble the termination of the name of one of his father's moneyers, SWTIDETS.
No such moneyer's name, however, exists on the coins of Stephen, the supposed S and D are merely
ornaments; the letters really are PTIETS. See (271).
In Ruding's plate, ii. 1, the letters are clearly EDOTS; this coin we do not know; the museum specimen
reads TDEFΓ, but does not help us to any elucidation of the meaning.
These coins are almost always broken and imperfect, and not common even in that state.
William, Son of Stephen.
Front face between two stars, LVILLEM DVO. Rev. tressure of four sides a pellet at each angle, over a
cross terminating in three pellets, and having a pellet in each angle. Rud. Sup. 2. ii. 1. JONES LONG,
unique?
Front face, no stars. Rev. similar to preceding, but that the cross consists of two bars. (284). Rud. S. 2.
ii. 2. MB. 1.
Compare these two coins with those of Hen. I, Rud. S. 2. ii. 5. and the half coin described under that
king, (261).
The two coins described above so exactly resemble two coins of king Henry I. see Rud. Sup. 2. ii. 5. and
our (261), that they may be very plausibly conjectured to have been struck by his son William; but this
youth perished by shipwreck in 1120, in the eighteenth year of his age, and there is not any reason to
believe that he ever struck any money. Robert, the illegitiamte son of Henry, is supposed to have
struck money, see page 84, but not until after the accession of Stephen. Eustace, the son of Stephen,
struck money; so also did Henry, bishop of Winchester, the king's brother, and william, therefore, the
second son, may also have done the same, and the two coins above descibred may be specimens of
such coinage. They can scarcely be ascribed to any one but to William the son of Henry I., or William
the son of Stephen; they were both found together in a chalk pit at Wallsop near Salisbury, with some
of Henry I., as No. 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and of Stpehen, No. 9. They are of good silver. These coins are
assigned by Ruding to Wiliam Rufus, but without sufficient grounds. The letters DVO have not been
explained; they cannot admit of the interpretation of indicating the second William.
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