Welsh Journals

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ROMAN FINDS AT THE BOWLING GREEN, WELSHPOOL. The inventory of the Powysland Museum contains an entry of three coins found at this site and presented by Mr. Richard Williams in 1871: one large brass, much worn, Hadrian or Commodus,' which a later hand corrected to Hadrian,' and two small colonial brass.'1 The old Severn crossing, which the Bowling Green, or Old Domen, marks and guards, seems to have been in use at least as early as the period of Offa,s and these three coins have been cited as indications of transit activity in Roman Days. Without disputing the possibility of this, I would submit that the coins are not evidence. The two 'colonial brass' are Iberian coins of the 2nd cent. B.C., belonging respectively to Carteia in the south and to Ilergetes in the north of Spain. Such coins occur most rarely in this country, never far from the south coast, and the presence of two at the Bowling green would be entirely unprecedented. It is much more probable that they fell from the pocket of some numismatically-minded member of the Bowling Club. The Hadrian remains, but I fear that it cannot escape the suspicion which attaches to its companions. F.N.P. 1 Mont. Coll., HI., p. 418; VII., p. li and p. 304, Royal Comm. Montgomeryshire, No, 954. 2 C. Fox in Arch. Camb. Annual Subscriptions. NOTE:-Enclosed in this part members will find a bankers' order form. It would be of great help to the Club, if they would fill it in and return it to the Treasurer: and it is hoped that they will themselves be saved some trouble by doing so. It is generally felt that the vitality and well being of a club, such as ours, depends to a large extent upon its activity in furthering local research. In order to enable it to undertake each year a modest excavation, members are urged to include in the bankers' order a subscription of at least five shillings. EDITOR.