Item 1981/1 - Correspondence between John D. Brand and George C. Boon

5 items, paper

Four pieces of correspondence between John D. Brand and George C. Boon concerning the Wenallt hoard and its dating, with one attachment:
(a) photocopy of letter from John Brand to George Boon, typescript, single page, dated 11 September 1981, with one attachment, in response to GCB's note on the Wenallt hoard in the July edition of Seaby's Coins and Medals Bulletin. JDB praises the preliminary publication of the hoard takes issue with the date that GCB proposed for the hoard and the significance that he attached to the weights of the coins. There is a manuscript note in the upper margin, in red ink, that reads "Copy to BHIHS". There is also a note from the original typescript in the lower margin to indicate that copies of the letter (and attachment) were also sent to Marion Archibald, Peter Seaby, Robert Seaman and Ian Stewart.
(b) photocopy of short paper, typescript, three pages on three folios (recto only), entitled 'The date of Matilda's coins' by J. D. Brand, undated, attached to the letter described above.
(c) photocopy of letter from George Boon to John Brand, typescript, single page, dated 14 September 1981, in reply to JDB's letter and paper, thanking for the letter and noting that "there is room for disagreement" but stating that he "cannot really accept this advanced dating of Stephen's type I". He further discounts JDB's argument that 800 years of chemical action on the coins while they were in the ground provides insufficient cause to exclude the weight evidence, since that would mean ignoring the weight evidence of "the entire series of English coins". There is a handwritten postscript at the bottom of the page, in the photocopy, concerning the obverse legend HE.MA.IM. on Matilda's coins.
(d) photocopy of letter from John Brand to George Boon, typescript, single page, dated 3 October 1981, thanking GCB for his letter of of 14 September and asks for further clarification of his points of disagreement. He focuses on the HE.MA.IM. legend and questions whether coins with the legend can be dated before the 1140s, favouring the view that it cannot. There is again a manuscript note in the upper margin, in red ink, that reads "Copy to BHIHS" and a further note from the original typescript in the lower margin to indicate that copies of the letter (and attachment) were also sent to Archibald, Seaby, Seaman and Stewart.
(e) photocopy of letter from George Boon to John Brand, typescript, single page, dated 9 October 1981, thanking JDB for his further expression of interest in GCB's SCMB essay. He notes that he will give the hoard more serious consideration in due course but is not yet prepared to discuss it. He nevertheless does state that coin of the Empress Matilda does not have much bearing on the dating or longevity of Stephen's coins of type 1. He says that he needs to take more careful consideration of other evidence, both written and numismatic, before he will be able to commit himself, but he acknowledges that there are many puzzles surrounding the coinage of this period.