In the reign of Athelstan, 924, the town was of sufficient importance to have a mint. The only specimen of its coinage that we are aware of, is deposited in the Hastings Museum. It bears the moneyer's name and the place of coinage : was found some few years back near Winchester, in a bank by the side of an ancient road, by some boys who were playing at marbles : one of them lost a favourite marble in a hole, and in digging for it with their knives they struck upon something hard, and upon further digging they found a leaden box or case, in which were 10,000 silver pennies of the Conqueror, some from every mint in England, and quite new and bright. From there being specimens of all the mints extant, it is supposed they had been sent to Winchester, where the court was then held, as a kind of seignorage ; and, at the death of Rufus, might have been stolen in the confusion attendant on his violent end, and buried where they were found : the party, most probably, being banished or killed, the secret of their concealment dying with them.
The service rendered to the king by the barons of Hastings, was to fit out twenty-one ships for fifteen days at their own cost ; but if required for longer service, the expense was to be borne by the Crown. The crew of each ship consisted of twenty-one men and a gromet, or boy; the pay of the master and constable sixpence per day, and the others threepence per day ; having forty days' notice to make ready, and to co-operate with those furnished by the other ports, making in all fifty-seven ships.
To the turbulent reign of John the Cinque-ports are indebted for their chartered privileges ; and to him, strange as it may appear, the first assertion of national sovereignty over the seas is due. " By a law published at Hastings, in 1200, he commanded that all foreign vessels should strike their topsails to his -
