History of the English penny (c. 600-1066)

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This article is part of the History of the English penny series.

The Anglo-Saxons (c.600–1066)

Early Normans and the Anarchy (1066–1154)

Plantagenets (1154–1485)

Tudors (1485–1603)

Stuarts and Commonwealth (1603–1714)

Hanoverians (1714–1901)

20th Century (1901–1970)

Decimal Day, 1971

Post-decimalisation (1971–present)

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Contents 1 After Rome: Prelude to the Anglo-Saxon Coinage 2 The Earliest Gold Coinage: Thrymsas 3 The Silver Boom of c. 675–c. 750: the Sceattas 4 The Introduction of the Broad Penny: Offa and his Contemporaries 5 The Ninth Century 6 Viking Coinages 7 The Tenth Century 8 Edgar’s Reform, c. 973 and the Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage 9 Bibliography 9.1 General 9.2 After Rome 9.3 Thrymsas 9.4 Sceattas 9.5 The Age of Offa 9.6 The Ninth Century 9.7 Viking Coinages 9.8 The Tenth Century 9.9 Edgar's Reform and the Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage 10 External Links

[edit] After Rome: Prelude to the Anglo-Saxon Coinage

At the end of the fourth century, the Roman provinces of Britain were still part of a vibrant and quite efficient economic and monetary system that stretched over the whole Roman world. Precious metal coins of gold and silver were used for the payment of taxes, then reminted for payment to the military and civil service. Bronze 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 largitionum, with a number of major mints situated at Trier, Arles, Milan, Ravenna and Rome. London had operated as a mint in the first half of the fourth century, and again for a brief period under Magnus Maximus, 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 about 410, coinciding with the departure of the British garrison with Constantine III in 409. Hoards of coins and bullion – especially silver – from this period are very numerous in Britain, in part possibly due to disturbances of invasion, civil war and economic uncertainty. Some of these hoards could be very substantial indeed: the Hoxne hoard from Norfolk 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. Numismatists and archaeologists have long been struck by the phenomenon of clipped siliquae from the early fifth century, though precise dates and reasons for it remain elusive: it 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.

O: Bust of Valentinian II right. DN VALENTINIANVS IVN PF AVG	R: Two enthroned emperors holding globe, with victory above and mintmark below. VICTOR-IA AVGG TROBT
Gold solidus of Valentinian II, Trier, 375-92. Found in Anglo-Saxon grave at Droxford, Hampshire.

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 coming to seem 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-British settlements that persisted into this period have produced older coins that remained in circulation, as at Wroxeter. Gold and bronze coins in particular are often found on early Anglo-Saxon settlement sites and in graves, in many cases pierced or mounted for use as jewellery. Indeed, there is in fact no telling exactly when any late Roman coin was lost, and in some cases they may have been in use well into the fifth or even sixth century. As for new imports, the number known for this period has increased considerably in recent years thanks to the spread of metal-detecting. Hoards from this period are rare, but two have been found in the last ten years Oxborough (2001) and Patching (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 show that the flow of coinage into fifth- and sixth-century Britain never dried up totally, and interestingly it appears that there was also some influx of Byzantine coinage 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 pottery from the same period, which is found extensively in western Britain on sixth-century sites. Unfortunately, the extensive use as souvenirs during the First World War of Byzantine bronzes from this period found in the Middle East 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 tremisses 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.

[edit] The Earliest Gold Coinage: Thrymsas

O: Bust of Eadbald right. AVDV[ARLD REGES]	R: Cross on globe within wreath. ++IÞNNBALLOIENVZI
Gold thrymsa of Eadbald of Kent, London (?), 616-40.

The earliest known English coins are gold pieces, modelled on contemporary Merovingian Frankish 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 Gaul from around the 580s. Indeed, the earliest Anglo-Saxon gold tremisses (sometimes referred to by numismatists as thrymsas) were struck to circulate alongside Frankish issues, which had been current in England for some time: all of the forty gold tremisses found in the burial at ‘mound one’ at Sutton Hoo (deposited c. 630) were Frankish. The first coins which were probably struck in England are thus closely linked with contemporary Frankish coinage, and can be roughly dated to around the year 600: they include one gold tremissis struck by a moneyer named Eusebius working at Canterbury (Dorovernia), and a gold medallion (though in fabric very like a coin) found in Canterbury and bearing the name of a bishop Liudhard, almost certainly the same bishop of that name whom Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica described coming to England with Bertha, the Frankish bride of Æthelberht I of Kent.

The only substantial hoard of English coins from this period was found at Crondall, and included 69 English tremisses as well as a number of Frankish tremisses, probably deposited around 630. These and other finds reflect a range of types that rarely name a mint or issuing authority, though some rare types bear the name of London, and others are struck in the name of King Eadbald of Kent (616–40). In terms of design, they are modelled on Roman and Merovingian prototypes.

Widespread use of metal detectors 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 Northumbria and both English and Frankish gold coins circulated widely. Though the early Anglo-Saxon law-codes 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.

[edit] The Silver Boom of c. 675–c. 750: the Sceattas

O: Diademed bust right, with cross in front.	R: Wolf's head with curled tongue facing right.
Silver sceat of series K, London (?), c. 710-20.

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 silver which began in Merovingian Frankia. However, within a few years of c. 675 very large silver coinages were being struck in southeastern England. A few issues, such as those inscribed with the runic name Pada, 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 typically weighing 1–1.3g. Because of the references in the law-codes mentioned above, these new silver pieces are known to numismatists as sceattas. Contemporary terminology is uncertain, though it is likely that these coins were known as peningas (pennies). 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 halfpennies and even rarer gold coins.

The first (‘primary’) sceattas were largely confined to Kent and the Thames Estuary, 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 Anglia, eastern Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex. 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 the various types and series identified by modern scholars. These are arranged into lettered series according to the scheme of Stuart Rigold, and sometimes by the numbers applied to types in the British Museum catalogues of the 1880s.

O: +ALDFRIDVS around central annulet.	R: Left-facing quadruped.
Silver sceat of Aldfrith of Northumbria, 685-704.

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 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 York played a strong role in coinage production: King Aldfrith was the first English king named on silver coinage anywhere, and his successors retained a relatively tight hold on coinage production throughout the eighth century.

O: Facing bust with beard and cross on either side.	R: Right-facing curled 'dragon'.
Silver sceat of series X, Ribe, Denmark, c. 710-20.

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. Sceattas are nowadays found all over eastern England in large numbers, and were also produced and used in the Netherlands and Jutland. Sceattas from these areas reached England in large quantities at a time when trade and other links across the North Sea were particularly strong.

[edit] The Introduction of the Broad Penny: Offa and his Contemporaries

O: Diademed bust of Offa right. +OFFA REX+	R: Lobed cross on large annulet containing smaller cross superimposed on saltire. EðILVALD.
'Light' silver penny of Offa, moneyer Æthelweald, London, c. 775-92.

By the middle of the eighth century, production of sceattas had, like 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 in 755 King Pippin III (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 mint. 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 from fine silver, Beonna’s coinage later declined in standard, though one of his moneyers survived to strike some of the earliest coins known of Offa of Mercia.

O: Draped bust of Aethelberht right. LUL+EDILBERHT	R: Pelleted frame containing wolf and twins. REX
Silver penny of Aethelberht, moneyer Lul, East Anglia, c. 779-94.

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 at least three mints: Canterbury, London and somewhere in East Anglia. 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 there were also issues at Canterbury in the names of two local Kentish kings, Heaberht (of whom only one coin survives) and Ecgberht II, probably in the 770s. A small coinage was also struck in the name of King Æthelberht II of East Anglia, who was executed by Offa in 794: only three specimens survive today, probably produced in the 780s or 90s.

Offa’s coinage represents one of the high-points of Anglo-Saxon art, and indeed were probably the most accomplished coins produced anywhere in Europe at that time, in contrast with the 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. Reverse designs included intricate crosses of various types, but the range of Offa's die-cutters was impressive: other reverse designs include intertwining serpents, eels and the wolf and twins. Uniquely in Anglo-Saxon England, coins were also struck at Canterbury in the name of the queen, Cynethryth, 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, and it has also been suggested that the appearance of Irene on Byzantine coinage 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 and survived him to become a powerful abbess.

As with the sceattas considerable problems surround knowledge of exactly how coinage was organised and implemented. It is also possible that the pennies of Offa’s reign still reflect the vestiges of 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 London (Eadberht) is named on some coins, the only pieces struck by any Anglo-Saxon bishop of London; and in Canterbury the archbishops Iænberht (765–92) and Æthelheard (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, and have received much attention from historians because of their impressive artistry and range of royal titulature: Offa is variously entitled REX, REX M(erciorum), REX MERCIORU(m) and probably REX A(nglorum).

[edit] The Ninth Century

O: Draped and diademed bust of Coenwulf right. REX M+COENVVLF	R: Cross with wedges in angles. +BEORNFRIĐ MONETA
Silver 'Cross-and-wedges' penny of Coenwulf, moneyer Beornferth, Canterbury, 805-c. 810.

After Offa’s death in 796, usurpers in Kent and East Anglia – Eadbearht Præn and Eadwald – took power and issued coins in their own name, following the design of Offa’ heavy coinage. After a small issue at London based on this same type, the mew Mercian ruler Coenwulf instituted a reform of the coinage leading to the new tribrach type. This was adopted by Eadbearht and Eadwald and even by Beorhtric of Wessex, 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 Cuthred – 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, 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 coinage was modelled on the silver denarii produced by Pope Hadrian I (772–95).

O: Facing tonsured bust of Wulfred. +VVLFRED ARCHIEPI	R: Monogram of DOROVERNIA. +SVVEFHERD MONETA
Silver penny of Wulfred, moneyer Swefherd, Canterbury, c. 815-22.

Coenwulf continued a portrait coinage throughout 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's 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 I held Kent, but coins in his name from Canterbury are very rare and struck by only a few of the full complement of moneyers. Rochester, on the other hand, became far more productive under Ceolwulf, perhaps to compensate for lower royal production at Canterbury, whereas the greater part of Canterbury’s production from this time 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 Beornwulf. No Kentish coins are known in his name, but there are many in the name of one Baldred, 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). However, Egbert retreated and consolidated his position in the south-east, leaving Mercia to Wiglaf, 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 the end of Egbert’s reign, now in the name of Ceolnoth.

The ninth century saw the spread of minting outside the south-east, which had dominated production outside Northumbria since the end of the sceattas. The West Saxon mint initiated by Beorhtric was reopened under Egbert in the 820s but remained very sporadic in operation between then and Alfred’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, Æthelweard and (St) Edmund. These kings mainly issued non-portrait pennies bearing a large central A. When first adopted under Coenwulf, this probably represented part of an Alpha-Omega pair, but in East Anglia more likely signified Angli or (rex) Anglorum.

O: Draped and diademed bust of Alfred right. ÆLFRED REX	R: Monogram of LVNDONIA.
Silver 'London monogram' penny of Alfred, London, c. 880.

Under Æthelwulf, minting remained buoyant at Canterbury and Rochester and continued in the name of Archbishop Ceolnoth throughout the period. A succession of four phases can be distinguished: a non-portrait type bearing the legend REX SAXONIORUM, inspired by Egbert’s West Saxon coinage; a new portrait coinage bearing a wide range of reverse designs; a standardised 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); and finally 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: only 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 40 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.

In the reign of Berhtwulf of Mercia (c. 840–52) minting at London, Mercia’s only remaining mint, began again in earnest, around the time of Æthelwulf’s second and third phases of coinage. 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 even 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 Burgred. This coinage survives in very large numbers thanks to a great increase in minting (about 20 moneyers are known for Alfred and 35–40 for Burgred) and the discovery of a large number of hoards, presumably associated with Viking 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 of Wessex. This introduced the heavier, finer ‘cross-and-lozenge’ type after a number of very rare and often highly 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 the one known example of the ‘two emperors’ portrait penny type, one other specimen of which is known in the name of Ceolwulf II, the new Mercian king installed by the Vikings. Ceolwulf also struck pennies of the ‘cross and lozenge’ type, and the earliest known round English halfpenny belongs to this phase of coinage.

Further reforms were initiated by Alfred later in his reign. Around 880, London struck an innovative series of portrait pennies bearing Alfred’s portrait and, on the reverse, a monogram 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 later 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 Gloucester’), 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’).

O: +EDILRED REX around central cross.	R: +LEOFDEGN around central cross.
Copper styca of Aethelred II of Northumbria, moneyer Leofthegn, c. 840-8.

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 gloss in the Lindisfarne Gospels; contemporary terminology is unknown). 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.

[edit] Viking Coinages

O: Bird (raven?) surrounded by circle. +ANLAF CVNVNGI	R: Circle containing small central cross. +AĐELFERD MINET
Silver penny of Olaf Guthfrithson, moneyer Aethelferth, York, 939-41.

The first coins that can be associated with the Vikings 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 very large coinage naming the martyred Saint Edmund on the obverse was struck by at least 60 moneyers (the bulk of them bearing names indicating continental origins) until the conquest of East Anglia by Edward the Elder 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 (8,000 coin) Cuerdale 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 Peter 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 Guthfrithson (939–41) present the first known use of Old Norse in the Latin alphabet anywhere in the legend ANLAF CVNVNGIR (‘King Anlaf’).

O: Large A within circle. +SCE EADMVND RI	R: Circle containing small central cross. +VVINE MRONETAI
Silver penny of St Edmund Memorial Coinage, moneyer Wine, East Anglia, c. 895-910.

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 Martin at Lincoln.

[edit] The Tenth Century

O: Crowned right-facing bust of Aethelstan. +ÆĐELSTAN REX TO BR	R: Circle containing central cross with small crosses above and below. +OTIC MONETA VVINCI
Silver 'Bust crowned' penny of Aethelstan, moneyer Otic, Winchester, c. 927-39.

The coinage of Edward the Elder in some ways continued the types and organisation current under his father Alfred, but with the expansion of West Saxon control into the Midlands and East Anglia 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 Mercia struck an interesting series of pictorial reverse types. Since mint names are again very rare, attributions must largely be made by working backwards from Æthelstan’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 York 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 Grateley (probably around 934 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 attached to each.

O: Circle containing small central cross. +EADVVEARD REX	R: City gate. +PALTEREO
Silver penny of Edward the Elder, moneyer Walter, 899-924.

Towards the end of Æthelstan’s reign and in the time of his successors Edmund, Eadred, Eadwig and the first part of Edgar’s reign, the coinage was of a regionalised character, with up to seven regions of monetary circulation. Coins normally stayed within their area of production, and different types were current in each region. 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, they 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 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.

[edit] Edgar’s Reform, c. 973 and the Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage

O: Draped and diademed bust of Edgar left within circle. +EADGAR REX ANGLOR[um]	R: Small cross within circle. +LYFING MO NRĐPI
Silver 'Reform' penny of Edgar, moneyer Lyfing, Norwich, c. 973-5.

Exactly when Edgar 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 Wendover’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 II. Old coins disappeared from circulation and a single standardised type was introduced at all 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 Winchester. Such centralisation was unusual, and occurred in only a few types: more commonly, a number of regional die-cutting centres existed and distributed dies to nearby, smaller mints. Around seventy places in England (and in Wales under the Normans) were active as mints during this period, ranging hugely in size and productivity: the largest was London, though York and Lincoln remained important throughout the period, and other major mints included Winchester, Norwich and Stamford. 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 Mowbray, Milborne Port, Castle Gotha, Cadbury Castle and Dunwich. 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.

O: Helmeted bust of Aethelred right. +ÆĐELRED REX ANGLOR	R: Long cross with central lozenge with beaded finials. +ELFPINE MO LVND
Silver 'Helmet' penny of Aethelred II, moneyer Ælfwine, London, c. 1003-9.

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. Under Edward the Confessor there was strong German influence in the portraits, perhaps as a result of Edward’s employment of German goldsmiths named Theoderic and Otto, and 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 York and Lincoln, contained a preponderance of moneyers with Scandinavian names, whilst one sometimes comes across moneyers all over the country with continental names, or even more exotic names in Old Irish.

O: King seated facing on throne holding orb and sceptre. EADVVEARDV REX ANGLO	R: Circle containing cross with birds in angles. +ÆLFRED ON LVND
Silver 'Sovereign eagles' penny of Edward the Confessor, moneyer Ælfwine, London, c. 1050-60.

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 Martyr’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 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 Conquest 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 in the late Anglo-Saxon coinage, 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.

Remarkably little written evidence survives to help numismatists and historians understand how the coinage and its system of changes of type actually functioned. Domesday Book does record that moneyers at certain mints had to go to London 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. One probable 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.

O: Lamb of God walkng right with sceptre and plaque with Alpha and Omega. +ÆĐELRED REX ANGLORVM	R: Dove with extended wings. +BLACAMAN DYREBY
Silver 'Agnus Dei' penny of Aethelred II, moneyer Blacaman, Derby, c. 1009.

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 Wilton, for instance, whereas no coins of the preceding Long Cross type are known from Salisbury, but moneyers with the same names as those from Wilton started to operate there in the Helmet type. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 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 (sixteen specimens survive) is unclear: 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 Eynsham 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 Lincoln and York 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 Scandinavia. Connections between England and Scandinavia were very close at this time, with raiders, traders, mercenaries and, ultimately, kings regularly crossing the North Sea. English coins in Scandinavian hoards probably include at least some profit from raiding and the tributary payments referred to as Danegeld. Payments to Danish troops employed by the English kings continued until 1051, when Edward the Confessor dismissed the last of them; English coins finds in Scandinavia become even fewer at this time. However, since even larger numbers of Arabic and, later, German coins have been found in Scandinavia, it is more probable that the bulk of the English imports came via trade rather than military action.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] 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, 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

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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
• 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

[edit] 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 Principal Series of English Sceattas’, British Numismatic Journal 47 (1977), 21–30

[edit] 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., 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

[edit] 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
• Pagan, H. E., ‘Coinage in the Age of Burgred’, British Numismatic Journal 34 (1965), 11–27
• 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

[edit] 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
• P. Grierson and M. A. S. Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage, I: the Early Middle Ages (5th – 10th Centuries) (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 316–25

[edit] 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

[edit] 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
• 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)
• 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

[edit] External Links

• Corpus of Early Medieval Coin Finds and Checklist of Early Medieval British Coin Hoards

• Introduction to Viking-Age Coinage

• Anglo-Saxon Coins Game

• Press Release about Coenwulf Gold Coin

• Portable Antiquities Scheme