ABSTRACT
Europe and Asia may be separated on a political map, but racial and cultural boundaries are ill-defined. In Central and Western Europe there were copper ingots in the form of lumps and bars, which show, as a rule, no distinguishing features. The earliest recognizable form of money is in metal bars and lumps or in gold and silver in the shape of rings. The 'nest' was at the base of a barrow called Money Hill, on the track of the Icknield Way, one of the earliest trade-routes of the country, and the bars may represent a form of aes rude which never developed into aes signatum. Probably the earliest form of currency was aes formatum, shaped like a bun or a biscuit. Lastly the bronze was cast in true coins aes grave, either circular or rectangular. There are some small socketed axes of the Late Bronze Age, especially abundant in Normandy and Brittany, which carry on the tale.
