Overview
The history of
Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon may refer to:* historically, the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people inhabiting parts of England during the Dark Ages** their Anglo-Saxon language, commonly referred to as Old English** anything pertaining to the History of Anglo-Saxon England...
coinage spans more than five centuries, from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the fifth century, down to the death of
Harold GodwinsonHarold Godwinson or Harold II was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England before the Norman Conquest. Harold reigned from 5 January 1066, until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October of that same year, fighting the Norman invaders, led by William the Conqueror...
at the
Battle of HastingsThe Battle of Hastings was the decisive Norman victory in the Norman Conquest of England. It was fought between the Norman army of Duke William of Normandy, and the English army led by Harold II...
on 14 October 1066. It can be divided into four basic phases:
- c. 450–c. 550: a very low level of coin-use in Britain
Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
, characterised by re-use of Roman coinage, though often in a non-monetary context. A small number of coins continued to be brought in from GaulGaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River...
and elsewhere on the Continent.
- c. 550–c. 680: the ‘gold’ phase of currency, which began with an increase in the rate of importation of continental gold, principally in the form of tremisses
Tremissis was a currency of the Late Ancient Rome, equal to one-third of solidus. Tremissis coins continued to be minted by descendants to the Roman Empire, such as Anglo-Saxon Britain or the Eastern Roman Empire.-External links:*...
. From around 620 English gold coins of similar format were produced, often known to numismatists as thrymsas. By the middle of the seventh century the quantity of gold in these coins was falling quickly, such that by the 670s they were more or less completely silver.
- c. 680–c. 750 (867 in Northumbria): the age of the sceattas
Sceattas were small, thick silver coins minted in England, Frisia and Jutland in Anglo-Saxon times, commonly referred to as the Dark Ages.-History:...
– small, thick silver coins which evolved out of the latest, debased gold coins. These should more correctly be referred to as pennies or denarii as in weight and fineness they approximated the form the English penny was to retain for centuries, and contemporary references suggest this is how they were known. Most sceattas do not bear an inscription and are thus difficult to attribute. It should be noted that in NorthumbriaNorthumbria or Northhumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now north-east England and southern Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory: the Humber...
, coins of this format continued to be struck under closer royal control until the 860s, though by the early ninth century they contained only a negligible quantity of precious metal.
- c. 750–14 October 1066: the silver coinage of sceattas petered out in southumbrian England in the middle of the eighth century, to be replaced by a broader, thinner model of silver coinage modelled on that of contemporary Carolingian coinage. These new coins carried legends naming the king, moneyer and (later) the mint of origin. With various modifications in weight (within the range 1.00g–1.70g) and fineness this format of coinage remained standard for the rest of the period, and indeed silver pennies of similar design remained the basis for the English currency until the fourteenth century. Pennies of this form were made by English kings from Offa
Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. He was the son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, a brother of King Penda of Mercia, who had ruled over a century before. Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald, defeating...
onwards, and also by vikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
rulers from the later ninth century.
In the gold phase of the coinage, the currency consisted overwhelmingly of gold
tremisses or
thrymsas of
c. 1.10–1.30g, though a few
solidiSolidus is the Latin word for "solid" and can refer to:*Solidus , the "⁄" grammatical punctuation character, also used in mathematics**See also Slash *solidus , a concept in chemistry, materials science, and physics...
exist, modelled on
RomanThe Roman currency during most of the Roman Republic and the western half of the Roman Empire consisted of coins including the aureus , the denarius , the sestertius , the dupondius , and the as...
coins. Thereafter the currency was more or less based on a single denomination: the silver penny. In the early 870s the first round halfpennies were produced under
Alfred the GreatAlfred the Great , was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English king to be given the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to...
and
Ceolwulf II of MerciaCeolwulf II was the last king of the Mercians. He succeeded Burgred of Mercia who was deposed in 874.-Dynastic background:...
; these were produced sporadically and in small quantity until Edgar’s reform of the 970s, after which it became common to cut whole pennies into halves and quarters, often at the time of production. The only known examples of larger silver denominations are two ‘offering pieces’ produced in the reign of
Alfred the GreatAlfred the Great , was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English king to be given the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to...
weighing the equivalent of six regular pennies, which were made as alms-pieces, probably to be sent abroad.
Although gold ceased to be the predominant form of currency in the seventh century, from the late eighth century onwards there was some use of fine gold coinage for special, high-value transactions. These gold pieces were often known as
mancusesMancus was a term used in early medieval Europe to denote either a gold coin, a weight of gold of 4.25g , or a unit of account of thirty silver pence...
. The form of gold coinage varied in the eighth and ninth centuries, drawing inspiration from Roman, Byzantine, Arabic and Carolingian gold coinages, but by the tenth century gold coins were made simply by striking a gold piece with the same dies as were used for regular minting of silver. Only eight English gold coins with intelligible legends survive from between the eighth century and 1066; there are also some coins that may or may not be of English origin which bear no legend, and specimens of contemporary foreign gold found in England.
It is difficult to ascertain the nature and extent of coin-use in Anglo-Saxon England. Written references to minting and money are scarce, and it is likely that even a single silver penny had considerable buying power – perhaps something in the region of £10–£30 in modern currency. Their use may also have been concentrated in certain classes of society, and was probably most associated with particular transactions such as the payment of rents, tributes and legal fees. However, analysis of surviving single-finds (principally made since the 1970s by users of
metal-detectorsA metal detector is a device which uses electromagnetic induction to detect metal.The simplest form of a metal detector consists of an oscillator producing an alternating current that passes through a coil producing an alternating magnetic field...
) shows that coins were used extensively, especially in the eastern half of England, both within and outside towns; they also circulated widely, and are frequently found far from their mint of origin. Substantial numbers of English coins have been found elsewhere in Europe, especially in Italy and Scandinavia, while English designs were influential on the emergent coinages of
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
,
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
,
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
and
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
.
After Rome: prelude to the Anglo-Saxon coinage
At the end of the fourth century, the
Roman provinces of BritainRoman Britain was those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia...
were still part of a vibrant and quite efficient economic and monetary system that stretched over the whole Roman world. Precious metal coins of
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
and
silverSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
were used for the payment of taxes, then reminted for payment to the military and civil service.
BronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It was particularly significant in antiquity, giving its name to the Bronze Age...
coinage was issued on a more occasional basis and was primarily produced to serve the needs of commerce in the provinces. Minting – and control over precious metals in general – across the western empire was under the control of the
comes sacrarum largitionumComes is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus , especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" + ire "go."-In the...
, with a number of major
mintsA mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is normally related in a fashion that more closely ties to the political situation of an era...
situated at
TrierTrier is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle River. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC. Trier is not the only city claiming to be Germany's oldest, but it is the only one that bases this assertion on having the longest history as a city, as opposed to a mere...
,
ArlesArles is a city in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence.-Geography:...
,
MilanMilan in Italy, is the capital of the region of Lombardia and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while the urban area is the fifth largest in the E.U. with an estimated population of 4.3 million...
,
RavennaRavenna is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The city is inland, but is connected to the Adriatic Sea by a canal. Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire till 476. It was later the capital ofKingdom of the Ostrogoths and the Exarchate of Ravenna till 751...
and
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
.
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
had operated as a mint in the first half of the fourth century, and again for a brief period under
Magnus MaximusMagnus Maximus , also known as Maximianus and Macsen Wledig in Welsh, was a Hispano-Roman usurper of the Western Roman Empire from 383 until his death, in 388, by order of Emperor Theodosius I.-Life:...
, but by 400 inflows of coinage to Britain came from the continent.
Finds of coins are very numerous from throughout the fourth century and even from the first years of the fifth. However, in the early fifth century the situation took a dramatic turn for the worse. The supply of bronze coinage all but ceased after around 402, and both gold and silver also petered out by
c. 410, coinciding with the departure of the British garrison with
Constantine IIIFlavius Claudius Constantinus, known in English as Constantine III was a Roman general who declared himself Western Roman Emperor in 407, abdicated in 411, and was captured and executed shortly afterwards.-Background:...
in 409.
HoardIn archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
s of coins and bullion – especially silver – from this period are very numerous in Britain, presumably due to disturbances of invasion, civil war and economic uncertainty. Some of these hoards could be very substantial indeed: the
HoxneHoxne is an anciently established village in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, about five miles east-southeast of Diss, Norfolk and one-half mile south of the River Waveney...
hoard from
NorfolkNorfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast, including The Wash. The county town is Norwich...
discovered in 1992 contained over 15,000 coins along with silver plate and jewellery.
The cessation in supply of freshly struck coins didn’t necessarily cause an immediate halt in the use of coinage.
NumismatistsNumismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and...
and
archaeologistsArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
have long been struck by the phenomenon of clipped
siliquaeThe siliqua is the modern name given to small, thin, Roman silver coins produced from 4th century and later.The term siliqua comes from the siliqua graeca, the seed of the carob tree, which in the Roman weight system is equivalent to 1/6 of a scruple .The term has been applied to the various silver...
from the early fifth century, though precise dates and explanations for it remain elusive. Clipping may have carried on into the middle of the fifth century, or been restricted to the 410s and 20s, and was perhaps carried out as a means of taxation by a government deprived of new supplies of coinage. According to this model, siliquae of a specified weight would have been brought in, clipped, and finally reissued by unit rather than weight.
The later fifth and sixth centuries are very murky in almost every way, and coinage is no exception. The once vigorous late Roman monetary system lay in tatters, with almost no new minting and very little importation of new coins. Nevertheless, it is becoming apparent that coinage never faded away completely, and that re-use of the existing supply of coinage continued throughout the period, buoyed along by occasional incomers. Some archaeological excavations of
Romano-BritishRomano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people Celtic in language and custom...
settlements that persisted into this period have produced older coins that remained in circulation, as at
WroxeterWroxeter is a village in the county of Shropshire, England, on the east bank of the River Severn, at . It is located about 5 miles south-east of Shrewsbury and is near to the village of Atcham. It lies in the parish of Wroxeter and Uppington. The Royal Mail postcode begins SY4...
. Gold and bronze coins in particular are often found on early
Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading Germanic tribes in the south and east of Great Britain from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, to the Norman conquest of 1066...
settlement sites and in graves, in many cases pierced or mounted for use as
JewelleryJewellery or jewelry is an item of personal adornment, such as a necklace, ring, brooch or bracelet, that is worn by a person. It may be made from gemstones or precious metals, but may be from any other material, and may be appreciated because of geometric or other patterns, or meaningful symbols...
. Indeed, there is no telling exactly when any late Roman coin was lost, and in some cases they may have been in use well into the post-Roman period. As for new imports, the number known for this period has increased considerably in recent years thanks to the spread of
metal-detectingA metal detector is a device which uses electromagnetic induction to detect metal.The simplest form of a metal detector consists of an oscillator producing an alternating current that passes through a coil producing an alternating magnetic field...
. Hoards from this period are rare, but two have been found in recent years at
OxboroughOxborough is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 240 in 106 households as of the 2001 census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of Breckland....
(2001) and
PatchingPatching is a small village and civil parish that lies amidst the fields and woods of the southern slopes of the South Downs in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It has a history going back to before the Domesday survey of 1087. It is located four miles to the east of Arundel, to the...
(1997), both dating to the later fifth century and the latter including no fewer than fifty gold and silver coins dating from the period up to
c. 470. A scattering of single-finds from the same period shows that the flow of coinage into fifth- and sixth-century Britain never dried up totally, and it appears that there was also some use of
Byzantine coinageByzantine currency, money used in the Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the West, consisted of mainly two types of coins: the gold solidus and a variety of clearly valued bronze coins...
in the sixth century: gold and especially bronze coins have been found in substantial numbers, even in the western part of Britain, which is normally less well represented in coin finds. This to some extent parallels the pattern of finds of North African
potteryPottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. Major types of pottery include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The places where such wares are made are called potteries. Pottery is one of the oldest human technologies and art-forms, and remains a major industry today...
from the same period, which is found extensively in western Britain on sixth-century sites. Unfortunately, the widespread use of Byzantine bronzes from this period as souvenirs from the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean means many finds of them must be treated with extreme care. The importation of current continental issues – mainly in gold – continued over the sixth century, with considerable numbers of Merovingian
tremissesTremissis was a currency of the Late Ancient Rome, equal to one-third of solidus. Tremissis coins continued to be minted by descendants to the Roman Empire, such as Anglo-Saxon Britain or the Eastern Roman Empire.-External links:*...
circulating in southern and eastern England even by the end of the sixth century. It was on the basis of these coins that the first native English production of coins took place in the early seventh century.
The earliest gold coinage: thrymsas
The earliest known English coins are
GoldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
pieces, modelled on contemporary Merovingian
FrankishThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
coinage, and consisting largely of
tremisses: one third of a gold solidus, originally weighing 4.5g, but in the Anglo-Saxon context apparently based on a revised standard of 3.9g implemented in
GaulGaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River...
from around the 580s. Frankish coins played an increasingly important role as currency in England as the sixth century went on, and the earliest Anglo-Saxon gold
tremisses (sometimes referred to by
numismatistsNumismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and...
as
thrymsas) were struck to circulate alongside these Frankish issues: all of the forty gold tremisses found in the burial at ‘mound one’ at Sutton Hoo (deposited
c. 630), for instance, were Frankish. The very eariest coins struck in England can be roughly dated to around the year 600: they include one gold
tremissis struck by a moneyer named Eusebius working at
CanterburyCanterbury lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent, in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
(
Dorovernia), and a gold medallion (though in fabric very like a coin) found in Canterbury and bearing the name of a bishop
LiudhardLiudhard or Letard was a French bishop – of where is unclear – and the chaplain of Queen Bertha of Kent, whom she brought with her from the continent upon her marriage to King Æthelberht of Kent...
, almost certainly the same bishop of that name whom
BedeBede , also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, or Beda , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria.He is well known as an author and...
’s
Historia ecclesiasticaThe Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Church in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history...
described coming to England with Bertha, the Frankish bride of Æthelberht I of Kent.
The only substantial
hoardIn archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
of English coins from this period was found at
CrondallCrondall is a village and large civil parish in the north east of Hampshire, England and is all that remains of the old Hundred of Crondall referred to in the Domesday Book of 1086. Various earlier spellings have in common the use of a "u" instead of the "o" and the village is still properly...
, and included 69 English
tremisses as well as a number of Frankish
tremisses, probably deposited around 630. These and other finds reveal a range of types that rarely name a mint or issuing authority, though one scarce type bears the name of London, and others are struck in the name of King
Eadbald of KentEadbald was King of Kent from 616 until his death. He succeeded his father Æthelberht, who made Kent the dominant force in England during his reign and became the first Anglo-Saxon king to convert to Christianity...
(616–40). In terms of design they are based on Roman and Merovingian prototypes.
Widespread use of
metal detectorA metal detector is a device which uses electromagnetic induction to detect metal.The simplest form of a metal detector consists of an oscillator producing an alternating current that passes through a coil producing an alternating magnetic field...
s in the last thirty years has substantially increased the number of coins known from this and indeed all periods. For all that the coins are still relatively rare and minting was primarily confined to the south-east, some were probably struck in
NorthumbriaNorthumbria or Northhumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now north-east England and southern Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory: the Humber...
, presumably at York, and both English and Frankish gold coins circulated widely. The arrangements behind minting are also quite obscure, and it cannot automatically be assumed that they were produced as a ‘royal’ coinage: bishops, abbots, lay magnates and perhaps individual moneyers may have provided the driving force behind minting.
Though the early
Anglo-Saxon law-codesAnglo-Saxon law is a body of written rules and customs that were in place during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, before the Norman conquest. This body of law, along with early Scandinavian law and continental Germanic law, descended from a family of ancient Germanic custom and legal thought...
must be used with caution for this period, they describe a wide range of compensatory payments in
scillingas and
scættas from
c. 600 onwards. These terms reflect translations of continental legal usage, and may well describe measures of value and/or weight rather than coins as such, yet nonetheless it is probable that the gold
tremisses produced in seventh-century England were referred to as
scillingas.
The silver boom of c. 675–c. 750: the sceattas
Over the course of the seventh century, the gold content of Anglo-Saxon and Frankish
tremisses deteriorated until, in the 660s, they were often only 10-20% pure. Around this point, there was a major shift from debased gold to
SilverSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
in Merovingian Frankia. However, within a few years of
c. 675 very large silver coinages were being struck in southeastern England as well. A few issues, such as those inscribed with the runic name
Pada and the Latin
Vanimundus, exist in both debased gold and silver, presumably spanning the changeover. The new silver coins are similar to the later
tremisses in terms of size and weight: small (typically 10-12mm in diameter), thick and usually weighing 1–1.3g. Because of the references in the law-codes mentioned above, these new silver pieces have been known to numismatists as
sceattasSceattas were small, thick silver coins minted in England, Frisia and Jutland in Anglo-Saxon times, commonly referred to as the Dark Ages.-History:...
since the seventeenth century. Contemporary terminology is uncertain, though it is likely that these coins were known as
peningas (pennies), just like their later broader equivalents. Silver pennies of roughly this weight (1–1.6g) were to remain the sole unit of English currency until the thirteenth century, with the exception of rare silver
halfpenniesThe British decimal half penny was first issued on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice it had been available from banks in bags for some weeks previously....
and even rarer
gold coinsMancus was a term used in early medieval Europe to denote either a gold coin, a weight of gold of 4.25g , or a unit of account of thirty silver pence...
.
The first (‘primary’)
sceattas of series A, B and C were largely confined to
KentKent , originally Cantia, is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent...
and the
Thames EstuaryThe Thames Estuary is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea.It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary, although physically the head of Sea Reach, near Canvey Island on the Essex shore is probably the western boundary...
, though the emergence of the ‘secondary’
sceattas (probably
c. 710) introduced a breathtaking array of new designs and saw minting expand to many new areas: by the middle of the ‘secondary’ phase coins were being struck in Kent, the Thames Estuary,
East AngliaEast Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, eastern
MerciaMercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
,
NorthumbriaNorthumbria or Northhumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now north-east England and southern Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory: the Humber...
and
WessexThe Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest of...
. Unfortunately, because very few coins bear any form of legend and there was extensive imitation and copying, it is extremely difficult to assign dates and minting-places to many of the types and series identified by modern scholars. These are arranged into lettered series according to the scheme of Stuart Rigold, devised in the 1960s and 70s, and sometimes by the numbers applied to types in the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
catalogues of the 1880s and expanded thereafter to around 150 different varieties. The current chronology, basically laid down by Mark Blackburn in the mid-1980s, rests on the large
CimiezCimiez is an upper class neighborhood in Nice, France. The area contains the Henri Matisse Museum and the ruins of Cemenelum, capital of the Ancient Roman province Alpes Maritimae on the Ligurian coast...
hoard from southern Gaul, which contained
sceattas of several secondary types alongside local issues of named rulers that allowed the hoard to be dated
c. 715/20.
There remains much uncertainty about the organisation behind the
sceattas and exactly what authorities lay behind minting. Some issues are so large that only major rulers could have been behind them, whilst others are so small that they could well have been the work of an individual moneyer working independently. Others display prominent and sophisticated religious motifs, suggesting that they may have been produced by monasteries or bishops. An exception to the general obscurity of the
sceattas comes in Northumbria, where from a very early date the king and (arch)bishop of
YorkYork is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence....
played a strong role in coinage production: King
AldfrithAldfrith sometimes Aldfrid, Aldfridus , or Flann Fína mac Ossu was king of Northumbria from 685 until his death. He is described by early writers such as Bede, Alcuin and Stephen of Ripon as a man of great learning, and some of his works, as well as letters written to him, survive...
was the first English king named on silver coinage anywhere, and his successors retained a relatively tight hold on coinage after production resumed under
EadberhtEadberht was king of Northumbria from 737 or 738 to 758. He was the brother of Ecgbert, Archbishop of York. His reign is seen as a return to the imperial ambitions of seventh-century Northumbria and may represent a period of economic prosperity. He faced internal opposition from rival dynasties...
.
The early eighth century saw coinage production and circulation on a very impressive scale; greater indeed than at any other point after the fourth and before the thirteenth century. Some 2,500 finds of
sceattas are recorded from England, particularly the east and the south, allowing study on the finer details of circulation and use.
Sceattas were also produced and used in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
and probably
JutlandJutland , historically also called Cimbria, forms the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish-German border to its south...
. Minting places in the Low Countries such as
DorestadIn the Early Middle Ages, Dorestad was one of the biggest, most important and flourishing trading places or emporia of Northwestern Europe.It was situated where the Rhine and Lek rivers diverge southeast of Utrecht in the Netherlands. In Roman times a Roman fortress was built there; nowadays it is...
and
DomburgDomburg is a seaside resort on the North Sea, on the northwest coast of Walcheren in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Veere, and lies about 11 km northwest of the city of Middelburg, the provincial capital....
supplied a significant proportion of the currency circulating in England at any one time, and were among the most important commercial centres in Europe.
Sceattas provide invaluable evidence for the vigour with which trade across the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
was conducted in the early eighth century.
The introduction of the broad penny: Offa and his contemporaries
By the middle of the eighth century, production of
sceattas had, as with the
thrymsas before them, declined considerably: the last coins of the secondary period are scarce and often debased, and a dearth of coinage is indicated in the record of several archaeological and metal-detecting sites that had been productive for the previous period. Similar problems afflicted the Frankish kingdom too, and around 754/5 King
Pippin IIIPepin or Pippin , called the Short, and often known as Pepin the Younger or Pepin III, was the Mayor of the Palace and Duke of the Franks from 741 and King of the Franks from 751 to 768...
(751–68) took the initiative and reformed the Frankish coinage, introducing a new, thinner, broader format (at least 15mm in diameter) struck in much finer silver. Importantly, these new coins all bore the king’s name and (usually) the name of the issuing
mintA mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is normally related in a fashion that more closely ties to the political situation of an era...
. English rulers followed suit around the same time, and the earliest signs of reform outside Northumbria (where a substantial and relatively high quality silver coinage remained in production, albeit sporadically, over the eighth century) came in East Anglia, where the obscure ruler Beonna reformed the local coinage sometime after he came to the throne in 749. His coins bear the royal name and that of the moneyer, and in fabric are midway between the
sceattas and the new Frankish pennies. Initially struck in fine silver, Beonna’s coinage later declined in standard, though one of his moneyers survived to strike some of the earliest coins known for
Offa of MerciaOffa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. He was the son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, a brother of King Penda of Mercia, who had ruled over a century before. Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald, defeating...
.
It was Offa who introduced the broad penny to southumbrian England on a substantial scale, and made the employment of king’s and moneyer’s names standard at least three mints:
CanterburyCanterbury lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent, in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
and somewhere in
East AngliaEast Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
. His earliest coins bear an abbreviated version of the royal title influenced by that on the coinage of Pippin III, and on the reverse the moneyer’s name. Early in the course of his coinage (probably in the 760s or 770s) there were also smaller issues at Canterbury in the names of two local Kentish kings,
HeaberhtHeaberht was a King of Kent in the 8th century, ruling jointly with Ecgberht II.Heaberht is known from his coins and from charters of other kings. He witnessed or confirmed two charters of Ecgberht II , one dated 765, as is mentioned in a charter of Offa, King of Mercia , dated 764 ....
(of whom only one coin survives) and
Ecgberht IIEcgberht II was King of Kent jointly with Heaberht.Ecgberht II is known from his coins and charters, ranging from 765 to 779 , two of which were witnessed or confirmed by Heaberht.Ecgberht II acceded by 765, when he issued his earliest surviving charter...
. Production of broad silver pennies also persisted in East Anglia, commencing in Offa's name but later interrupted by a small coinage struck in the name of King Æthelberht II of East Anglia, who was executed by Offa in 794: only three specimens of his coinage survive today, probably produced in the 780s or 90s.
Offa’s coinage represents one of the high-points of
Anglo-Saxon artAnglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, particularly from the time of King Alfred , when there was a revival of English culture after the end of the Viking invasions, to the Norman Conquest in 1066, when the move to the Romanesque style becomes complete...
, and indeed they were probably the most artistically accomplished coins produced anywhere in Europe at that time: they stand in sharp contrast with the aniconic coins of contemporary Frankia. Portraits were introduced at an early stage, and were executed in a number of different styles betraying a range of artistic influences drawing on contemporary and Roman sources. Reverse designs included intricate crosses of various types, but the range of Offa's die-cutters encompassed other reverse designs including intertwining serpents, eels and the
wolf and twinsRomulus and Remus are considered to be the traditional founders of Rome, appearing in Roman mythology as the twin sons of the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars...
. Uniquely in Anglo-Saxon England, coins were also struck at Canterbury in the name of the queen,
CynethrythCynethryth was the wife of Offa of Mercia and mother of Ecgfrith of Mercia. Cynethryth is the only Anglo-Saxon Queen consort in whose name coinage was definitely issued.-Origins and marriage:...
, from dies produced by the same talented individual responsible for the best of Offa’s portrait dies. This practice could have been inspired by encounters with Roman coins in the names of empresses. It is also possible, though less likely, that the appearance of
IreneIrene Sarantapechaina , known as Irene of Athens or Irene the Athenian was a Byzantine empress regnant from 797 to 802, having previously been Empress consort from 775-780, and empress mother and regent from 780-797...
on
Byzantine coinageByzantine currency, money used in the Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the West, consisted of mainly two types of coins: the gold solidus and a variety of clearly valued bronze coins...
led Offa’s queen to place her image on coins as well. Certainly Cynethryth emerges from surviving evidence as a formidable individual, who regularly witnessed contemporary charters immediately after her husband, was responsible for the running of his household and survived him to become a powerful abbess.
As with the
sceattas considerable problems surround knowledge of exactly how the new coinage was organised and implemented. It is possible that the pennies of Offa’s reign still reflect the vestiges of the organisation behind the complex
sceattas, with the diverse designs often varying from moneyer to moneyer. Other authorities exerted minting rights in his reign that may have been held for some time: the
Bishop of LondonThe Bishop of London is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
(
EadberhtEadberht is an Anglo-Saxon male name. It may refer to:*Eadberht of Lincoln*Eadberht of Lindisfarne*Eadberht of Northumbria*Eadberht of Selsey*Eadbert I of Kent*Eadberht II of Kent*Eadberht III Præn of Kent*Eadbrightus*Eadberht of Lindsey...
) is named on some coins, the only pennies struck in the name of an Anglo-Saxon bishop outside York and Canterbury; and in Canterbury the archbishops
IænberhtJænberht was monk, then abbot, of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, and eventually Archbishop of Canterbury.-Early life:Jænberht was a monk at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury before being selected...
(765–92) and
ÆthelheardÆthelhard was Bishop of Winchester then Archbishop of Canterbury from 793 to 12 May 805.-Biography:Æthelhard was an abbot of a monastery at Louth, Lincolnshire before being named to the diocese of Winchester...
(793–805) struck both independently and with Offa. Similarly, dating the reforms that brought this new penny coinage into being is contentious. It appears likely that production started at roughly the same time at London, Canterbury and East Anglia, perhaps
c. 765–70, and the bulk of the coinage – including the portrait coinage – was probably produced in the 770s and 80s. Later in Offa’s reign there was a second reform in which the weight was raised, the size of the flan increased and a common non-portrait design introduced at all three mints. This ‘heavy coinage’ can be closely dated, for no examples of it are known in the name of Archbishop Iænberht, whilst there are no ‘light’ (i.e., pre-reform) pennies of Archbishop Æthelheard, indicating that the reform took place in 792 or 3.
The coins of Offa provide valuable evidence for a new dimension of royal authority and action with regard to the coinage, and have received much attention from historians because of their impressive imagery and range of royal titulature: Offa is variously entitled REX, REX M(
erciorum), REX MERCIORU(
m) and probably REX A(
nglorum).
The ninth century
After Offa’s death in 796, usurpers in Kent and East Anglia –
Eadbearht PrænEadberht III Præn was the King of Kent from 796 to 798. His brief reign was the result of a rebellion against the hegemony of Mercia, and it marked the last time that Kent existed as an independent kingdom....
and
EadwaldEadwald of East Anglia was the king of East Anglia c. 796-798. Eadwald was probably in exile during the oppressive reign of Offa . After the death of Offa of Mercia, who had ruled East Anglia directly since deposing and beheading its king Aethelberht in 796...
– took power and issued coins in their own names, following the design of Offa’ heavy coinage. After a small issue at London based on this same type, the new Mercian ruler
CoenwulfCoenwulf was King of Mercia from December 796 to 821. He was a descendant of a brother of King Penda, who had ruled Mercia in the middle of the 7th century. He succeeded Ecgfrith, the son of Offa; Ecgfrith only reigned for five months, with Coenwulf coming to the throne in the same year that Offa...
instituted a reform of the coinage leading to the new
tribrach type. This non-portrait type used an obverse design modelled on the earlier coinage of Cynethryth, and despite its use of the central M (for
Merciorum) was adopted by Eadbearht, Eadwald and even by
Beorhtric of WessexBeorhtric was the King of Wessex from 786 until his death.In 786, Cynewulf, king of Wessex, was killed by the exiled noble Cyneheard, brother of the former King Sigeberht. Beorhtric's successful bid for the throne was supported by Offa, king of the Mercians against Egbert...
, who struck a very rare coinage around this time.
By 798 Coenwulf had regained Kent and East Anglia also came back under his power by the 800s. He appointed a sub-ruler for Kent – his brother
CuthredCuðred was a King of Kent .After the revolt of Kent under Eadberht III Præn was defeated in 798 by Cœnwulf, he established Cuðred as a client king...
– in whose name coins were struck at Canterbury. Cuthred and his brother may have minted simultaneously in the cross-and-wedges portrait type current from around 805, but it is equally possible that they had sole control of the mint one after the other.
Around the same time, the archiepiscopal coinage at Canterbury also changed: the new archbishop,
Wulfred-Biography:Wulfred is believed to have come from Middlesex and was a member of a wealthy and important family with considerable landholdings in Middlesex and neighbouring regions. He was archdeacon of the community at Christ Church, Canterbury before the death of his predecessor Æthelhard...
, was very eager to assert his ecclesiastical rights, even at the expense of the king, and instituted an archiepiscopal portrait coinage bearing no reference at all to Coenwulf. This attractive series was modelled on the silver
denarii produced by
Pope Hadrian IPope Adrian, or Hadrian I, was pope from February 1, 772 to December 25, 795. He was the son of Theodore, a Roman nobleman....
(772–95).
Coenwulf continued a portrait coinage for the rest of his reign at Canterbury, London, East Anglia and, from
c. 810, at a new mint located at Rochester in Kent. Canterbury came to dominate silver coin production, and whilst East Anglia and Rochester remained relatively stable, pennies from London become very rare: despite the recent discovery of a gold coin of Coenwulf with the legend DE VICO LVNDONIAE it is clear that the mint of London was in decline by around 800.
In the years between Coenwulf's death in 821 and
Egbert of Wessex'sEgbert was King of Wessex from 802 until 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s Egbert was forced into exile by Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802 Egbert returned and took the throne.Little is known of the first twenty years of Egbert's reign, but...
conquest of Kent and the south-east in 825, the mint at Canterbury weathered a turbulent period that is better reflected in the coins than any written source. Coenwulf’s brother and successor
Ceolwulf ICeolwulf I was King of Mercia and Kent, from 821 to 823. He was the brother of Cœnwulf, his predecessor, and was deposed by Beornwulf.-External links:* http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=seek&query=S+186...
held Kent, but coins in his name from Canterbury are very rare and struck by only a few of the full complement of moneyers. Nonetheless, his short reign provides evidence of quite strong interest in the coinage, and several types common to a number of mints were introduced: a feature not seen in the latter part of his predecessor's reign. The largest of these new types even encompassed the normally distinct East Anglian mint. Rochester became far more productive under Ceolwulf, perhaps to compensate for lower royal production at Canterbury. It looks like the greater part of Canterbury’s coinage from the years
c. 822-4 consists of ‘anonymous’ pennies bearing a royal- or archiepiscopal-style portrait surrounded by the moneyer’s name and the mint name (
Dorobernia civitas) on the reverse. No reference is made to any king or archbishop. This fascinating coinage seems to reflect a time when the moneyers were uncertain of whose authority to recognise, probably around Ceolwulf’s deposition in 823 by
BeornwulfBeornwulf was King of Mercia from 823 to 825. His short reign saw the collapse of Mercia's dominant position among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the Heptarchy....
. No Kentish coins are known in his name, but there are many in the name of one
BaldredBaldred was a king of Kent, until 825, when he was expelled by Æthelwulf, son of King Egbert of Wessex, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "because formerly they had been wrongly forced away from their allegiance to his kinsmen"....
, who was probably another Mercian sub-ruler of Kent, though this is difficult to tell for certain from the very scanty written records of this period. However, it is known that when Egbert of Wessex and his son Æthelwulf invaded Kent in 825 they put Baldred to flight and imposed their own rule.
Egbert’s campaign of conquest took him far beyond Kent and even through Mercia to the borders of Northumbria in 829-30. Unusually, this dramatic military success was reflected in an issue of coinage from London, with Egbert named REX M(
erciorum). This is one of very few cases in Anglo-Saxon England where it looks like coinage was being used in a propagandistic way: design and production was not as closely tied to politics and current events as in the classical or modern period.
After these conquests Egbert retreated and consolidated his position in the south-east, leaving Mercia to
WiglafWiglaf was King of Mercia from 827 to 829 and again from 830 until his death. His ancestry is uncertain: the 820s were a period of dynastic conflict within Mercia and the genealogy of several of the kings of this time is unknown...
, who struck very a very rare coinage at London, now the only mint available to the kings of Mercia. Egbert's coinage from Kent at first continued the pattern of Baldred’s, but was reformed
c. 828 to introduce a new reverse monogram type, retaining a portrait of the king on the obverse. Archiepiscopal minting was interrupted immediately after the West Saxon takeover, but resumed shortly before Wulfred’s death using the same monogram reverse as the royal coinage in conjunction with an archiepiscopal name and bust on the obverse; a type that continued under Wulfred’s successor
Ceolnoth-Biography:Gervase of Canterbury says that Ceolnoth was Dean of the see of Canterbury previous to being elected to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, but this story has no confirmation in contemporary records. Ceolnoth was consecrated archbishop on 27 July 833...
, who came to power in 833.
The ninth century saw the spread of minting beyond the south-east, which had dominated production outside Northumbria since the end of the
sceattas. The West Saxon mint initiated by Beorhtric continued to operate at a relatively low level under Egbert but remained very sporadic in operation between his death and
AlfredAlfred the Great , was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English king to be given the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to...
’s reign later in the ninth century. In East Anglia, coinage gradually became more substantial under the last Mercian rulers and, from
c. 825, under a series of independent rulers: Æthelstan,
ÆthelweardÆthelweard was of King of East Anglia in the middle of the 9th century.As with his predecessor Æthelstan, textual evidence for Æthelweard's reign is very limited...
and
(St) EdmundEdmund the Martyr was a king of East Anglia who was venerated as a martyr saint soon after his death at the hands of Danish Vikings. Contemporary evidence for his life and death is scanty, being largely confined to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and his coinage...
. These kings mainly issued non-portrait pennies bearing a large central A, and other designs which were often particular to individual moneyers, though produced by a common die-cutter. When first adopted under Coenwulf, this central A probably represented part of an Alpha-Omega pair, but in East Anglia more likely signified
Angli or
(rex) Anglorum.
Under Æthelwulf, minting remained buoyant at Canterbury and Rochester and continued in the name of Archbishop
Ceolnoth-Biography:Gervase of Canterbury says that Ceolnoth was Dean of the see of Canterbury previous to being elected to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, but this story has no confirmation in contemporary records. Ceolnoth was consecrated archbishop on 27 July 833...
throughout the period. A succession of four phases can be distinguished at these two mints. At Canterbury the first was a non-portrait coinage bearing the legend REX SAXONIORVM, inspired by Egbert’s West Saxon coinage; and a new portrait coinage bearing a wide range of reverse designs came second. At Rochester, the first type comprised a portrait element with diverse reverse designs struck by the royal moneyers, and also a probably episcopal element which does not name a moneyer or carry a portrait, but does bear the unusually long royal title REX OCCIDENTALIVM SAXONVM. In the second phase the episcopal coinage ceases and a non-portrait type was adopted by the royal moneyers. The last two phases of Æthelwulf’s coinage were common to both Rochester and Canterbury, with dies for both mints in the final phase coming from a common source at Canterbury. The third type of Æthelwulf’s reign was a non-portrait coinage with the ambiguous mint legend DORIBI (which could refer to either Canterbury,
Dorobernia; or Rochester,
Dorobrebia) and a monogram for CANT(
ia). Æthelwulf’s last coinage was a new portrait type of very different style. This
inscribed cross type may have only come into production after several years without coinage at Canterbury: just two moneyers from there and from Rochester survived from earlier types, possibly because of the Viking raid on Kent recorded in 851. This new coinage survived into the reign of Æthelwulf’s son Æthelberht (no genuine coins are known of Æthelbald, who ruled 858–60) under whom it became very substantial: about forty moneyers are known to have produced it. Another new portrait type, the short-lived
floreate cross type, also appeared at the end of his reign but survives in very small numbers today. Since the
inscribed cross type is known largely thanks to a large hoard discovered at
DorkingDorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...
in the early nineteenth century and is found only rarely otherwise, it may be that the
floreate cross coinage too was once much more substantial than its modern survival rate appears to indicate. The
inscribed cross coinage is notable for the onset of major debasement, the centralisation of die-cutting for Canterbury and Rochester, and for a massive increase in the number of moneyers, so that almost 50 are known from the time of Æthelberht. These changes probably reflect the onset of a new and more intense royal management of the coinage, which was to be expanded under Æthelberht's successors.
In the reign of
Berhtwulf of MerciaBeorhtwulf was King of the Mercians from 839 or 840 to 852. His ancestry is unknown, though he may have been connected to Beornwulf, who ruled Mercia in the 820s...
(
c. 840–52) minting at London, Mercia’s only remaining mint, began again in earnest, around the time of Æthelwulf’s second phase of coinage in the mid 840s. A mixture of portrait and non-portrait types was struck. Because of the long abeyance of the London mint, considerable support came from West Saxon Rochester in the form of dies and even moneyers, and it is possible that some coins in Berhtwulf’s name were actually produced in Rochester. It was once thought that this monetary co-operation was reflected in a unique penny bearing the name of Æthelwulf on one face and that of Berhtwulf on the other. However, this coin more likely represents an unofficial production without any particular political significance.
The recovery of Mercian minting was made most manifest by the adoption in Wessex of the ‘lunettes’ type first struck at London by Berhtwulf’s successor
BurgredBurgred or Burhred or Burghred was the king of Mercia .-Rule:Burgred succeeded to the throne in 852, and in 852 or 853 called upon Ethelwulf of Wessex to aid him in subduing northern Wales. The request was granted and the campaign proved successful, the alliance being sealed by the marriage of...
. This coinage survives in very large numbers thanks to a great increase in minting, especially in the latter part of Burgred's reign: about twenty moneyers are known for
AlfredAlfred the Great , was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English king to be given the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to...
and 35–40 for Burgred. This period is particularly well known thanks to the discovery of a large number of hoards, presumably associated with
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
raids. This coinage is very difficult to organise or categorise in any meaningful way. However, the lunettes type had become very debased by the early 870s when production was probably at its highest, and another reform was initiated in the mid 870s by Alfred (‘the Great’) of Wessex. This introduced the heavier, finer
cross-and-lozenge type after a number of very rare and interesting experimental issues were struck in the years around the reform. At London, which lay within the Mercian kingdom, Alfred was initially recognised as king of Mercia as well as Wessex after the deposition of Burgred in 873/4, and was even called REX ANG(
lorum) on one of two known examples of the
two emperors portrait penny type. The other specimen of this fascinating type is in the name of
Ceolwulf IICeolwulf II was the last king of the Mercians. He succeeded Burgred of Mercia who was deposed in 874.-Dynastic background:...
, the new Mercian king installed by the Vikings. Ceolwulf also struck pennies of the
cross and type, and the earliest known round English
halfpennyThe British decimal half penny was first issued on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice it had been available from banks in bags for some weeks previously....
belongs to this phase of coinage.
Further reforms were initiated by Alfred later in his reign. Around 880,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
struck an innovative series of portrait pennies bearing Alfred’s portrait and, on the reverse, a
MonogramA monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos...
of
Lundonia. Later one moneyer, Tilewine, placed his name on the reverse as well, but this coinage was for the most part struck without moneyers' names. The main type struck in the latter part of Alfred’s reign, however, was the non-portrait
two line type. Again, a few different and perhaps experimental types have survived in small numbers. These include a portrait coin – probably from around the same time as the London monogram pennies – with the mint-name ÆT GLEAPA (‘from
GloucesterGloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
’), which had become an important centre of ‘English’ Mercia under Alfred’s ealdorman Æthelred; a small number of ‘four-line’ non-portrait pennies with reverse mint names assigning their production to Winchester and Exeter; another non-portrait series probably struck at Oxford (OHSNAFORDA); and large silver ‘offering pieces’ inscribed ELIMOSINA (‘alms’).
Northumbria’s numismatic history was quite distinct from that of the south. Coinage never petered out as completely as it did below the Humber, and until close to the end of its history Northumbrian coinage remained closely linked to the king and archbishop. However, debasement became a serious issue around the end of the eighth century, when numismatists begin to apply the term
stycas to Northumbrian coinage (based on a tenth-century
GlossA gloss is a brief summary of a word's meaning, equivalent to the dictionary entry of that word, but only a word or two in length. It is typically used for the meaning of a word in another language, and hence a simple translation....
in the
Lindisfarne GospelsThe Lindisfarne Gospels is an illuminated Latin manuscript of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the British Library. The manuscript was produced on Lindisfarne in Northumbria in the late 7th century or early 8th century, and is generally regarded as the finest example of the kingdom's...
; contemporary terminology is unknown). Both the political and the numismatic chronology of this period is very confused, with many accounts and suggestions competing with one another. By the middle of the ninth century Northumbrian coinage contained almost no silver and was being produced on a massive scale: many tens of thousands of coins are known today, and several very large hoards have been found, such as one from the churchyard in Hexham which contained some 8000
stycas. After a final phase of considerable disorganisation, the
stycas were phased out by the Scandinavian rulers who took over Northumbria in 867, and replaced with a new penny coinage on the model of coinage in the Carolingian empire and southumbrian England. Two exceptional coins illustrate that Northumbrian coinage in the ninth century may not have been entirely composed of
stycas: a gold
MancusMancus was a term used in early medieval Europe to denote either a gold coin, a weight of gold of 4.25g , or a unit of account of thirty silver pence...
survives in the name of Archbishop
Wigmund
, modelled on contemporary gold solidi of
Louis the PiousLouis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
; and a silver penny found in the Cornish
TrewhiddleTrewhiddle is a small settlement in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It lies in the civil parish of Pentewan Valley and the ecclesiastical parish of St Austell. The nearest town is St Austell, approximately one mile to the north.-Manor of Trewhiddle:...
hoard of
c. 868 in the name of EANRED REX, with an anomalous reverse legend apparently reading ĐES MONETA (‘his coin’(?)) followed by an Omega. The latter coin has still not been conclusively fitted into context: its style suggests production around 850, but
Eanred of NorthumbriaEanred was king of Northumbria in the early ninth century.Very little is known for certain about Eanred. The only reference made by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to the Northumbrians in this period is the statement that in 829 Egbert of Wessex...
probably died in 840. It may therefore be either a posthumous commemorative issue of some sort, or a survivor of a very rare Southumbrian coinage in the name of an otherwise forgotten ruler.
Viking coinages
The first coins that can be associated with the
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
s in England are imitations of Alfred’s coinage, particularly the ‘London monogram’ and ‘two-line’ types. These are very numerous today, and for a long time caused great difficulty for numismatists working on Alfred’s coinage, who could not always tell them from the genuine issues. However, before the end of the ninth century new silver coinages had begun in East Anglia and at York. In East Anglia, a coinage was struck in imitation of Alfred’s in the name of Guthrum (with his baptismal name Æthelstan), followed by a very large coinage naming the martyred
Saint EdmundEdmund the Martyr was a king of East Anglia who was venerated as a martyr saint soon after his death at the hands of Danish Vikings. Contemporary evidence for his life and death is scanty, being largely confined to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and his coinage...
on the obverse, which was struck by at least sixty moneyers (the bulk of them bearing names indicating continental origins). This coinage persisted until the conquest of East Anglia by
Edward the ElderEdward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...
in 917/18. In Northumbria, the highly debased
styca coinage came to an end and was replaced with a fine silver coinage, which is very well known thanks to the huge (
c. 8,000 coin)
CuerdaleCuerdale is a civil parish in the South Ribble district of Lancashire, England. It includes Cuerdale Hall and has no substantive settlements. It originated as a township in the parish of Blackburn, becoming a separate civil parish in 1866...
hoard deposited in the first decade of the tenth century.
Sometimes this coinage named local Viking rulers (the identification of whom with figures from written sources is often impossible or contentious) but, at the start of the tenth century, the name of the mint and that of
Saint PeterSimon Peter , Pétros “Rock”, Kephas in Hellenized Aramaic) was a leader of the early Christian Church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Peter was the son of John, and was from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee...
replaced references to king and moneyer. From the 910s the York coinage resumed naming the ruler and also began to display a range of interesting devices connected to the Scandinavian presence in York: swords, hammers, banners and a bird variously interpreted as a raven or dove. The York pennies of
Anlaf/Olaf GuthfrithsonAmlaíb mac Gofraid , , a member of the Norse-Gael Uí Ímair dynasty, was king of Dublin from 934 to 941. Gofraid ua Ímair, his father, held both Dublin and York until Athelstan of England expelled him from York in 927....
(939–41) present the first known use of Old Norse in the Latin alphabet anywhere in the legend ANLAF CVNVNGIR (‘King Anlaf’).
Although Northumbria and East Anglia were the main bastions of Viking coinage, at various times there was also production in the East Midlands, for instance of coins naming
Saint MartinSaint Martin of Tours , was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela...
at
LincolnLincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of around 101,000 - the 2001 census gave the entire urban area of Lincoln a population of 120,779...
.
The tenth century
The coinage of
Edward the ElderEdward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...
in some ways continued the types and organisation current under his father Alfred in Wessex and English Mercia, but with the expansion of West Saxon control into the Midlands and
East AngliaEast Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
the currency system became more complex as new regions were incorporated into Edward’s kingdom. For the most part the coinage was non-portrait and simple in design, though some mints in English
MerciaMercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
struck an interesting series of pictorial reverse types. Since mint names are again very rare, attributions must largely be made by working backwards from
ÆthelstanAthelstan or Æthelstan , called the Glorious, was the King of England from 924/925 to 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder, and nephew of Æthelflæd of Mercia...
’s reign when mint names were often found on coins of the
circumscription cross and
bust crowned types. These coinages, struck at about thirty named mints after the conquest of the
kingdom of YorkScandinavian York is a term, like the terms Kingdom of Jórvík or Kingdom of York, used by historians for the kingdom of Northumbria in the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century, when it was dominated by Norse warrior-kings; in particular, it is used to refer to the city controlled by...
in 927, reflect a renewed effort on the king’s part to have a single, centrally controlled coinage spanning the kingdom: types were standardised, the royal title was expanded from the usual REX to REX SAXONUM or even REX TO(
tius) BRIT(
anniae), as one finds in contemporary charters. It was also under Æthelstan that coinage was first mentioned in any detail in legal documentation: a law-code issued by him at
GrateleyGrateley is a small village in the north west of Hampshire, England.Grateley lies just to the South of the pre-historic hillfort of Quarley Hill. The Parish covers with 607 people living in 250 dwellings. The village has two shops, two pubs, a thirteenth century church Grateley is a small village...
(probably around 926-30 though incorporating numismatic data from somewhat earlier) details the acceptance of a single currency and penalties for forgery, and goes on to list a series of minting places and the number of moneyers permitted to each.
Towards the end of Æthelstan’s reign and in the time of his successors
EdmundEdmund I , called the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, or the Magnificent, was King of England from 939 until his death. He was a son of Edward the Elder and half-brother of Athelstan...
, Eadred, Eadwig and the first part of
EdgarEdgar I the Peaceful , also called the Peaceable, was a king of England . Edgar was the younger son of Edmund I of England.-Accession:...
’s reign, the coinage was of a regionalised character, with up to seven regions of monetary circulation. The structure of this system is clearest for northern England thanks to the discovery of more numerous hoards in that part of the country. Coins normally stayed within their area of production, and different types were current in each region. However, these regions were not static, and many of the 'regional' types were, to the untrained eye, comparatively similar. The predominant type bore the king's name in circumscription on the obverse (normally around a small cross), and the moneyer's name in two lines with various ornaments on the reverse. At various times a circumscription reverse was also used, which gave scope for a longer legend; or a portrait obverse. For reasons unknown, East Anglia in particular favoured royal portraits between the 930s and 970s, though it was also used sporadically elsewhere. Mints are not normally named, but it is usually possible to attribute coins to their region of origin. However, despite the regionalised types and circulation of coinage, pennies remained of relatively stable size, weight and fineness, and most importantly were always struck in the name of the West Saxon king. Even when the kingdom was divided between Eadwig and Edgar in 957, coinage seems to have remained the preserve of Eadwig, the senior partner in rule, even in the mint towns ruled by Edgar.
The last phase of this regionalised coinage, struck in the first decade of Edgar’s sole reign, produced a number of unusual features. Mint names became more common, and there were a number of appropriations from earlier English coinage, such as a resurrection of Alfred’s London monogram on halfpennies and Æthelstan’s royal title REX TO(
tius) BRIT(
anniae). This revival of interest in the coinage foreshadowed an even greater reform at the end of Edgar’s reign.
Edgar’s reform, c. 973 and the late Anglo-Saxon coinage
Exactly when
EdgarEdgar I the Peaceful , also called the Peaceable, was a king of England . Edgar was the younger son of Edmund I of England.-Accession:...
reformed the coinage is not certain: that it was towards the end of his reign is clear from the coins, and the only help provided by written sources is a reference in
Roger of WendoverRoger of Wendover , probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century. At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell of Belvoir, but he forfeited this dignity in the early years of Henry III,...
’s thirteenth-century chronicle, which implies the reform may have taken place in or after 973. Its impact, however, cannot be underestimated, and it formed the basis of the English coinage until the reign of
Henry IIHenry II, called Curtmantle ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France...
. Old coins disappeared from circulation and a single standardised type was introduced at around forty mints across the country, bearing the royal portrait and title on the obverse and the names of moneyer and mint around a small central cross on the reverse. Initially, too, all new dies were distributed from a single die-cutting centre located at
WinchesterWinchester is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. It lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of the River Itchen...
. Such centralisation was unusual, and occurred in only a few of the other types that came after: more commonly, the same type was used throughout the country but die production devolved to a number of regional die-cutting centres which distributed dies to nearby, smaller mints. Even within the nine-month reign of Harold II in 1066 coins were struck with a new design in his name at forty-eight mints. Around seventy places in England (and in Wales under the
NormansThe Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
) were active as mints during this period, ranging hugely in size and productivity: the largest was
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, though
YorkYork is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence....
and Lincoln remained important throughout the period, and other major mints included
WinchesterWinchester is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. It lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of the River Itchen...
,
NorwichNorwich is a city in Norfolk, East Anglia which is in Eastern England. It is the regional administrative centre and county city of Norfolk...
and
StamfordStamford is an ancient town located approximately 100 miles to the north of London, just off the A1, which was the old Great North Road leading to York and Edinburgh. It is a town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England...
. At the other end of the scale are places that were never important mints in the Anglo-Saxon period and are little more than villages, hillforts and market towns today, including
Melton MowbrayMelton Mowbray is a town in the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England. It is to the northeast of Leicester, and southeast of Nottingham...
,
Milborne PortMilborne Port is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, east of Sherborne, and in the South Somerset district. It has a population of 2,735...
, Castle Gotha, Cadbury Castle and
DunwichDunwich is a small town in Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.Dunwich was the capital of East Anglia 1500 years ago and was a prosperous seaport and centre of the wool trade during the Early Middle Ages, with a natural harbour formed by the mouths of the River Blyth and...
. Mints of this kind were often only active during short periods, such as a number of 'emergency' mints set up during the reign of Æthelred II because of Viking depredations.
The designs chosen for the coinage were relatively uniform, following the pattern of Edgar’s reformed pennies: the obverse carried some form of royal portrait as well as the royal name and title, whilst the reverse gave the name of the moneyer and the mint around some form of cross. Within this format, however, there was much variation. Portraits could face either way and reflect a wide range of influences. Under Æthelred II, for instance, one type was based upon early fourth-century Roman coins showing the emperor in military garb, with helmet and armour; another was based on civilian portraits of other fourth-century emperors without any form of headgear. Under
Edward the ConfessorEdward the confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last English kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066 Edward the confessor ...
there was strong German influence in the portraits from the last fifteen years or so of his reign, perhaps as a result of Edward’s employment of German
goldsmithA goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a Goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual Goldsmiths are rare...
s named Theoderic and Otto. These show the king bearded, helmeted and crowned, and in some cases even facing straight forward or seated on a throne.
The existence of moneyer and mint names on each and every coin provide valuable evidence for the study of not only mint structure (in terms of how productive certain moneyers were, or how many shared dies) but also of contemporary naming patterns and – to some extent – the makeup of the population. Mints located in the old Danelaw, like
YorkYork is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence....
and
LincolnLincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of around 101,000 - the 2001 census gave the entire urban area of Lincoln a population of 120,779...
, contained a preponderance of moneyers with
ScandinavianOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
names, whilst one sometimes comes across moneyers all over the country with continental names, or even more exotic names in
Old IrishOld Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Goidelic languages for which extensive written texts are possessed. It was used from the 6th to the 10th centuries, when it gave way to Middle Irish....
.
This first type, usually known as the
First small cross or
Reform type, remained in currency for Edgar’s last years, the whole of
Edward the MartyrEdward the Martyr , was king of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar, but not his father's acknowledged heir. On Edgar's death, the leadership of the England was divided, some supporting Edward's claim to be king and other supporting his much...
’s short reign and even into the first years of Æthelred II, who came to the throne in 978/9. At some point early in his reign, however, another of the features that was to characterise the late Anglo-Saxon currency system came into play: the first of many changes of type. More than fifty such changes occurred during the existence of the coinage as reformed by Edgar, which persisted until the 1150s. Within the reign of Æthelred, for instance, six such changes can be seen, manifested in the progression of the following types:
First Small cross;
First hand;
Second hand;
Crux;
Long Cross;
Helmet;
Last Small cross. After the death of Cnut, under whom another three types (
Quatrefoil,
Helmet and
Short cross) were struck, types become more numerous and changes presumably more frequent: fourteen types were struck in the years between 1035 and the
Norman ConquestThe Norman conquest of England began in 1066 with the invasion of the Kingdom of England by the troops of William, Duke of Normandy, and his victory at the Battle of Hastings. This resulted in Norman control of England, which was firmly established during the subsequent few years. The Norman...
of 1066, probably lasting only two or three years each. It is presumed that each change of type required coins of old money to be exchanged for new, with the king and the moneyer taking a cut either as a portion of the value of the new coins or from the minting process. The weight of the coinage varied considerably, even within types, suggesting that there may have been some profit taken in minting by extracting silver from the coinage, though within the kingdom of England it would have been possible to enforce that all coins be accepted at face value regardless of weight. Hoard evidence, at least from before the 1030s, suggests that reminting of the whole coinage was stipulated at each change of type, for a number of hoards survive consisting of only one type. Alongside these, however, are ‘savings’ hoards, which contain a mixture of two or more types; and a mixture of types becomes much more common in hoards from after the 1030s. One possible explanation for this change in the pattern of production and hoarding is that it came to be the rule, after the 1030s, that only payments to the crown had to be in the current type, whereas other types of English coinage were viable for other purposes.
Remarkably little written evidence survives to help numismatists and historians understand how the coinage and its system of changes of type actually functioned.
Domesday BookThe Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror...
does record that moneyers at certain mints had to go to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
to purchase new dies for twenty shillings
quando moneta vertebatur (‘when the coinage was changed’), and that certain towns paid annual sums to the king for the privilege of running a mint. At several towns bishops and abbots had rights to the profits of one or more moneyers (which normally went to the king), but these are no longer reflected by any changes in the design of the coins.
Numismatists have sometimes tried to discern a very rigid system of organisation in the late Anglo-Saxon coinage: one, Michael Dolley, believed that until the death of Cnut in 1035, each type lasted six years, with a few exceptions – such as the
Last Small Cross type at the end of Æthelred’s reign – lasting longer under very unusual conditions. Some features seem to support this belief, at least for the earlier period. Certain changes of type apparently coincided with datable historic events: no coins of the
Helmet type survive from the mint of
WiltonWilton is a town in Wiltshire, , England, with a rich heritage dating back to the Anglo-Saxons. Today it is dwarfed by its larger and more famous neighbour, Salisbury, but still has a range of notable shops and attractions, including Wilton House.The River Wylye meets the River Nadder at Wilton.-...
, for instance, whereas no coins of the preceding
Long Cross type are known from nearby
SalisburySalisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England. It has also been called New Sarum to distinguish it from the original site of settlement to the north of the city at Old Sarum, but this alternative name is not in common use. Similarly, a native of Salisbury may be known as a "Sarumite", but...
, but moneyers with the same names as those from Wilton started to operate there in the
Helmet type. The
Anglo-Saxon ChronicleThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The annals were initially created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. Multiple manuscript copies were made and distributed to monasteries...
records that in 1003 Wilton was sacked by Vikings and the inhabitants retreated to Salisbury, and it is likely that the change of type coincided with this event. However, there are a number of difficulties with reconstructing such a fixed framework. Not all types are as well represented in the surviving material, and it is clear that this is not always simply a result of a few large hoards distorting our view. There are a number of very small and rare types which were certainly never meant to become fully fledged issues, though some bear a clear relationship to them. Examples from the reign of Æthelred II include the
Benediction Hand type and the
Intermediate Small Cross type, as well as the famous
Agnus Dei type: a unique and fascinating issue on which the king’s portrait and the reverse cross are replaced with, respectively, the Lamb of God and the Holy Dove. The exact context for the production of this very rare coinage is unclear (eighteen specimens survive, as of November 2008): it was only struck at smaller mints, mostly in the midlands, either as an abortive main issue or as a special religious coinage for some specific purpose or occasion. Although the dating is unclear, it may be associated with the
EynshamEynsham is a village and civil parish about east of Witney in Oxfordshire, England.-History:Eynsham grew up near the historically important ford of Swinford on the River Thames flood plain....
gathering and the Penitential Edict of 1009. But the difficulties with the sexennial theory are not restricted to smaller, rarer types. The
Second Hand type of Æthelred, for example, was not much different in appearance from its predecessor, raising the question of how easily people would have told it and the old coinage apart. More importantly, only minuscule numbers of the type survive from more northerly mints such as
LincolnLincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of around 101,000 - the 2001 census gave the entire urban area of Lincoln a population of 120,779...
and
YorkYork is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence....
which, in the rest of the period, were some of the most productive in the kingdom. It is possible that the Second Hand type represents a continuation of the First Hand type, which may have run on rather longer than six years as part of a mechanism that did envisage changes of type, but not necessarily on a strict sexennial basis.
The late Anglo-Saxon coinage is best understood for the period
c. 990–
c. 1030 thanks to the discovery of many tens of thousands of coins in hoards from
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
. Connections between England and Scandinavia were very close at this time, with raiders, traders, mercenaries and, ultimately, kings regularly crossing the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
. English coins in Scandinavian hoards probably include at least some profit from raiding and the tributary payments referred to as
DanegeldThe Danegeld was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources; the term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century...
. Payments to Danish troops employed by the English kings continued until 1051, when
Edward the ConfessorEdward the confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last English kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066 Edward the confessor ...
dismissed the last of them. English coin finds in Scandinavia become even fewer after this time. However, since large numbers of roughly contemporary
ArabicDirham or dirhem is a unit of currency in several Arab nations, and formerly the related unit of mass in the Ottoman Empire and Persian states...
and, later, German coins have also been found in Scandinavia, it is probable that the bulk of the English imports came via trade rather than military action.
General
- Dolley, R. H. M., Anglo-Saxon Pennies (London, 1964)
- Grierson, P., and M. A. S. Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage, I: the Early Middle Ages (5th–10th Centuries) (Cambridge, 1986)
- Grierson, P., Numismatics (Oxford, 1975)
- Lyon, C. S. S., ‘Historical Problems of Anglo-Saxon Coinage’, British Numismatic Journal 36 (1967), 227–42; 37 (1968), 216–38; 38 (1969), 204–22; and 39 (1970), 193–204
- Lyon, C. S. S., 'Some Problems of Interpreting Anglo-Saxon Coinage', Anglo-Saxon England 5 (1976), 173-224
- Stewart, B. H. I. H., ‘The English and Norman Mints, c. 600–1158’, in A New History of the Royal Mint, ed. C. E. Challis (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 1–82
- Williams, G., Early Anglo-Saxon Coins (Colchester, 2008)
After Rome
- Abdy, R., ‘After Patching: Imported and Recycled Coinage in Fifth- and Sixth-Century Britain’, in Coinage and History in the North Sea World c. 500–1250: Essays in Honour of Marion Archibald, ed. B. Cook and G. Williams (Leiden and Boston, 2006), pp. 75–98
- Guest, P., The Late Roman Gold and Silver Coins from the Hoxne Treasure (London, 2005)
- Kent, J. P. C., ‘From Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England’, in Anglo-Saxon Coins: Studies Presented to F. M. Stenton on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, 17 May 1960, ed. R. H. M. Dolley (London, 1961), pp. 1–22
- King, C., ‘Late Roman Silver Hoards in Britain’, British Numismatic Journal 51 (1981), 5–31
- King, M. D., ‘Roman Coins from Early Anglo-Saxon Contexts’, in Coins and the Archaeologist, ed. J. Casey and R. Reece, 2nd ed. (London, 1988), pp. 224–9
- Moorhead, T. S. N., ‘Roman Bronze Coinage in Sub-Roman and Early Anglo-Saxon England’, in Coinage and History in the North Sea World c. 500–1250: Essays in Honour of Marion Archibald, ed. B. Cook and G. Williams (Leiden and Boston, 2006), pp. 99–109
- Reece, R., The Coinage of Roman Britain (Stroud, 2002)
- White, R. H., Roman and Celtic Objects from Anglo-Saxon Graves, BAR British Series 191 (Oxford, 1988)
Thrymsas
- Abdy, R., and G. Williams, ‘A Catalogue of Hoards and Single-Finds from the British Isles, c. AD 410–675’, in Coinage and History in the North Sea World, c. 500 – 1250. Essays in Honour of Marion Archibald, ed. B. Cook and G. Williams (Leiden, 2006), pp. 11–73
- Grierson, P., ‘La fonction sociale de la monnaie en Angleterre aux VIIe – VIIIe siècles’, in Moneta e scambi nell’alto medioevo (Spoleto, 1961), pp. 341–85; repr. in his Dark Age Numismatics (London, 1979), no. XI
- Metcalf, D. M., Thrymsas and Sceattas in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 3 vols. (London, 1993–4), vol. 1
- Stewart, B. H. I. H., 'Anglo-Saxon Gold Coins', in Scripta Nummaria Romana. Essays Presented to Humphrey Sutherland, ed. R. A. Carson and C. M. Kraay (London, 1978), pp. 143-72
- Sutherland, C. H. V., Anglo-Saxon Gold Coinage in the Light of the Crondall Hoard (Oxford, 1948)
- Williams, G., ‘The Circulation and Function of Coinage in Conversion-Period England, c. AD 580–675’, in Coinage and History in the North Sea World, c. 500 – 1250. Essays in Honour of Marion Archibald, ed. B. Cook and G. Williams (Leiden, 2006), pp. 145–92
Sceattas
- Abramson, T., Sceattas: an Illustrated Guide (Great Dunham, 2006)
- Gannon, A., The Iconography of Early Anglo-Saxon Coinage (Sixth–Eighth Centuries) (Oxford, 2003)
- Hill, D., and D. M. Metcalf, ed., Sceattas in England and on the Continent: the Seventh Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History (Oxford, 1984)
- Metcalf, D. M., Thrymsas and Sceattas in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 3 vols. (London, 1993–4)
- Metcalf, D. M., ‘Monetary Expansion and Recession: Interpreting the Distribution Patterns of Seventh- and Eighth-Century Coins’, in Coins and the Archaeologist, ed. J. Casey and R. Reece, 2nd ed. (London, 1988), pp. 230–53
- Rigold, S., ‘The Two Primary Series of Sceattas’, British Numismatic Journal 30 (1960–1), 6–53
- Rigold, S., ‘The Principal Series of English Sceattas’, British Numismatic Journal 47 (1977), 21–30
The age of Offa
- Archibald, M., ‘The Coinage of Beonna in the Light of the Middle Harling Hoard’, British Numismatic Journal 55 (1986), 10–54
- Archibald, M., ‘A Sceat of Ethelbert I of East Anglia and Recent Finds of Coins of Beonna’, British Numismatic Journal 65 (1995), 1–19
- Blunt, C. E., ‘The Coinage of Offa’, in Anglo-Saxon Coins: Studies Presented to F. M. Stenton on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, 17 May 1960, ed. R. H. M. Dolley (London, 1961), pp. 39–62
- Chick, D., ‘Towards a Chronology for Offa’s Coinage: an Interim Study’, Yorkshire Numismatist 3 (1997), 47–64
- Chick, D., ed. M. Blackburn and R. Naismith, The Coinage of Offa and His Contemporaries (London, 2007)
- Pirie, E. J. E., Coins of the Kingdom of Northumbria, c. 700–867, in the Yorkshire Collections (Llanfyllin, 1996)
- Stewart, B. H. I. H., ‘The London Mint and the Coinage of Offa’, in Anglo-Saxon Monetary History: Essays in Memory of Michael Dolley, ed. M. A. S. Blackburn (Leicester, 1986), pp. 27–43
The ninth century
- Blackburn, M. A. S., ‘Alfred’s Coinage Reforms in Context’, in Alfred the Great: Papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences, ed. T. Reuter (Aldershot, 2003), pp. 199–217
- Blackburn, M. A. S., and D. N. Dumville, ed., Kings, Currency and Alliances: History and Coinage in Southern England in the Ninth Century (Woodbridge, 1998)
- Blunt, C. E., ‘The Coinage of Ecgbeorht, King of Wessex, 802–39’, British Numismatic Journal 28 (1955–7), 467–76
- Blunt, C. E., C. S. S. Lyon and B. H. I. H. Stewart, ‘The Coinage of Southern England, 796–840’, British Numismatic Journal 32 (1963), 1–74
- Lyon, C. S. S., ‘A Reappraisal of the Sceatta and Styca Coinage of Northumbria’, British Numismatic Journal 28 (1955–7), 227–42
- Pagan, H. E., ‘Coinage in the Age of Burgred’, British Numismatic Journal 34 (1965), 11–27
- Pagan, H. E., ‘Northumbrian Numismatic Chronology in the Ninth Century’, British Numismatic Journal 38 (1969), 1–15
- Pagan, H. E., ‘The Bolton Percy Hoard of 1967’, British Numismatic Journal 43 (1973), 1–44
- Pagan, H. E., ‘The Coinage of the East Anglian Kingdom from 825 to 870’, British Numismatic Journal 52 (1982), 41–83
- Pagan, H. E., ‘Coinage in Southern England, 796–874’, in Anglo-Saxon Monetary History: Essays in Memory of Michael Dolley, ed. M. A. S. Blackburn (Leicester, 1986), pp. 45–65
- Metcalf, D. M., ed., Coinage in Ninth-Century Northumbria (Oxford, 1987)
- Dolley, R. H. M., ‘The Chronology of the Coins of Alfred the Great’, in Anglo-Saxon Coins: Studies Presented to F. M. Stenton on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, 17 May 1960, ed. R. H. M. Dolley (London, 1961), pp. 77–95
- Dolley, R. H. M., and K. Skaare, ‘The Coinage of Æthelwulf, King of the West Saxons’, in Anglo-Saxon Coins: Studies Presented to F. M. Stenton on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, 17 May 1960, ed. R. H. M. Dolley (London, 1961), pp. 63–76
Viking coinages
- Blackburn, M. A. S., ‘The Ashdon (Essex) Hoard and the Currency of the Southern Danelaw in the Late Ninth Century’, British Numismatic Journal 59 (1990), 13–38
- Blackburn, M. A. S., ‘Expansion and Control: Aspects of Anglo-Scandinavian Minting South of the Humber’, in Vikings and the Danelaw: Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the Thirteenth Viking Congress, Nottingham and York, 21–30 August 1997, ed. J. Graham Campbell (Oxford, 2001), pp. 125–42
- Blackburn, M. A. S., ‘The Coinage of Scandinavian York’, in Aspects of Anglo-Scandinavian York, ed. R. Hall et al. (York, 2004), pp. 325–49
- Blunt, C. E., ‘The St Edmund Memorial Coinage’, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology 31 (1969), 234–53
- Blunt, C. E., and B. H. I. H. Stewart, ‘The Coinage of Regnald I of York and the Bossall Hoard’, Numismatic Chronicle 143 (1983), 146–63
- Dolley, R. H. M., Viking Coins of the Danelaw and Dublin (London, 1965)
- Dolley, R. H. M., ‘The Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norse Coinages of York’, in Viking-Age York and the North, ed. R. A. Hall, Council for British Archaeology Research Report 27 (London, 1978), pp. 26–31
- Grierson, P., and M. A. S. Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage, I: the Early Middle Ages (5th–10th Centuries) (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 316–25
- Lyon, C. S. S., and B. H. I. H. Stewart, ‘The Northumbrian Viking Coinage in the Cuerdale Hoard’, in Anglo-Saxon Coins: Studies Presented to F. M. Stenton on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, 17 May 1960, ed. R. H. M. Dolley (London, 1961), pp. 96–121
The tenth century
- Blunt, C. E., ‘The Coinage of Æthelstan, King of England 924–39’, British Numismatic Journal 42 (1974), 35–160
- Blunt, C. E., B. H. I. H. Stewart and C. S. S. Lyon, Coinage in Tenth-Century England from Edward the Elder to Edgar’s Reform (London, 1989)
- Jonsson, K., ‘The Pre-Reform Coinage of Edgar – the Legacy of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms’, in Coinage and History in the North Sea World, c. 500 – 1250. Essays in Honour of Marion Archibald, ed. B. Cook and G. Williams (Leiden, 2006), pp. 325–46
- Lyon, C. S. S., ‘The Coinage of Edward the Elder’, in Edward the Elder, 899–924, ed. N. J. Higham and D. H. Hill (London, 2001), pp. 67–78
- Pagan, H. E., 'The Pre-Reform Coinage of Edgar', in Edgar, King of the English 959-975. New Interpretations, ed. D. Scragg (Woodbridge, 2008), pp. 192-207
Edgar's reform and the late Anglo-Saxon coinage
- Blackburn, M. A. S., and K. Jonsson, ‘The Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman Element of North European Coin Finds’, in Viking-Age Coinage in the Northern Lands. The Sixth Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History, ed. M. A. S. Blackburn and D. M. Metcalf (Oxford, 1981), pp. 147–255
- Brand, J. D., Periodic Change of Type in the Anglo-Saxon and Norman Periods (Rochester, 1984)
- Dolley, R. H. M., The Norman Conquest and the English Coinage (London, 1966)
- Dolley, R. H. M., ‘An Introduction to the Coinage of Æthelred II’, in Ethelred the Unready: Papers from the Millenary Conference, ed. D. Hill (Oxford, 1978), pp. 115–33
- Dolley, R. H. M., and D. M. Metcalf, ‘The Reform of the English Coinage under Edgar’, in Anglo-Saxon Coins: Studies Presented to F. M. Stenton on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, 17 May 1960, ed. R. H. M. Dolley (London, 1961), pp. 136–68
- Freeman, A., The Moneyer and the Mint in the Reign of Edward the Confessor 1042–66, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1985)
- Hildebrand, B. E., Anglosachsiska mynt i Svenska Kongliga Myntkabinettet funna in Sveriges jord, 2nd ed. (Stockholm, 1881)
- Jonsson, K., The New Era: the Reformation of the Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage (Stockholm, 1986)
- Jonsson, K., Viking-Age Hoards and Late Anglo-Saxon Coins: a Study in Honour of Bror Emil Hildebrand’s Anglosachsiska mynt (Stockholm, 1987)
- Metcalf, D. M., An Atlas of Anglo-Saxon and Norman Coin Finds, c. 973–1086 (London, 1998)
- Petersson, H. B. A., Anglo-Saxon Currency: King Edgar’s Reform to the Norman Conquest (Lund, 1969)
- Smart, V., ‘Scandinavians, Celts and Germans in Anglo-Saxon England: the Evidence of Moneyers’ Names’, in Anglo-Saxon Monetary History: Essays in Memory of Michael Dolley, ed. M. A. S. Blackburn (Leicester, 1986), pp.171–84
- Stewart, B. H. I. H., ‘Coinage and Recoinage after Edgar’s Reform’, in Studies in Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage in Memory of Bror Emil Hildebrand, ed. K. Jonsson (Stockholm, 1990), pp. 455–85
External links