The Roman coins found in the county would, if brought together, form an exceedingly valuable collection.  They have been found in considerable numbers at St. Albans, Ware, Hoddesdon, Hitchin, Willian, Ashwell, Caldecote, Boxmoor, and many other places.  Small bronze coins, known as minimi, have been recently found at St. Albans, and are now in the city museum.  They date from after the year 345, when the earliest specimens of this type were struck, and are conjectured to be copies of coins issued under Constantius II. (337-61) and Julian the Apostate (361-3).  On the obverse is the “Imperial Head”; on the reverse a soldier striking with his spear at a man on horseback.  The coins, however, are assigned by at least one numismatist to a later date.  They may have issued from a Romano-British mint at Verulamium.  The famous Watling Street entered the county at Elstree and crossed it by way of St. Albans and Redbourn to Dunstable (Beds); the Icknield Way ran N.W. through Ickleford, Baldock and Royston; Akeman Street passed through Watford, Berkhampstead and Tring; Ermine Street, entering Hertfordshire at Waltham, passed through Ware and Braughing to Royston.

4. Saxon.—­A few fragmentary remains at Berkhampstead, Bennington, Offley and Hitchin have been thought to mark the sites of the palaces of Mercian kings; but genuine Saxon remains are scarcely found except, perhaps, among the foundations of a few churches, e.g., St. Michael’s at St. Albans, Standon and Wheathampstead.

Mention must however be made of the story, narrated in Archaeologia, of the discovery of the sepulchre of St. Amphibalus at a spot near Redbourn called the “Hills of the Banners”.  St. Alban himself appeared to a layman in a vision and told him where the saint’s bones were to be found,—­indeed, he is said to have himself gone thither to point out the spot.  This was during the abbacy of Symon (1167-83).  We learn from Roger of Wendover that the remains of St. Amphibalus were found lying between those of two other men; the bones of seven others were also lying close by.  Among the relics found with the bones of the saint were two large knives, one of which was in his skull.  We know that the holy relics were deemed worthy of solemn removal to the Abbey of St. Albans; his shrine there is mentioned in the Gazetteer.

In the Antiquary (vol. xi.) mention is made of the supposed discovery of an Anglo-Saxon burial ground in a field near Sandridge.  Many bones and some implements were unearthed, and pronounced by local experts to date from Saxon times.  They were buried again by some ignorant person.

A bronze brooch, discovered at Boxmoor, has been assigned to “the latest period of true Anglo-Saxon art”.  A gold ornament, resembling an armlet, was found at the village of Park Street, near St. Albans; it is thought to date from A.D. 700-1000.

5. Churches.—­These will be separately mentioned in due order, especially St. Albans Abbey, the unique meeting ground of all Styles; but a few sentences touching the predominant periods may be permissible here:—­