AN ANCIENT COIN FOUND IN THE EARTH TAKEN FROM
THE GIANT'S BED.
On Saturday last, Mathew, a son of Dr. Alexander Henderson,
veterinary surgeon, of this city, while visiting the Cardiff giant,
picked up from the surrounding debris thrown out of the excavated
resting place of this huge work of stone something that seemed
like a blackened scale of brass or a rusty old button. Thinking
that it might have some affinity to the wonderful statue, the lad
rubbed the dirt and rust from its surface between his finger and
thumb, and burnishing it a little by rubbing it in the folds of
his coat skirts, it showed evidence of being an old copper coin,
and he accordingly placed it carefully in is pocket, and brought
it home. Dr. Henderson, the lad's father, applied some acids to it,
when an ancient coin, of nearly the eleventh century, revealed
itself.
On the obverse side of the coin is the head of the Emperor Jestyn,
with a full flowing beard from the chin, and the sacred heart
strung from a rosary in the shape of a shield, or breast-plate,
strung around the neck. Beneath the Emperor is the date, "1091,"
and around the edge of the coin is the following inscription--
"JESTYN-AP-GURGAN, TYWYSOG-MORGANWG." The
interpretation of this, as rendered by a competent Welshman, means,
"Jestyn, son of Gurgan, Prince of Glanmorgan." On the reverse side
is the figure of the Goddess of Commerce, seated on the wheel at
her side, the pillar and ancient crown, wreathed with the national
emblem, the oak, the shield and spear supported by the left hand,
and the right hand pointing to a ship on the distant sea, with full sails
set, which she seems intently gazing at.
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