SOMERSETSHIRE COINS. va 
No place of mintage is indicated on the 
earliest pennies: the King’s name and title, and the 
moneyer’s name and designation, are all that they 
present to us. The first town inscribed is Canter- 
bury, on the pennies of Baldred king of Kent, 
Ceolwulf king of Mercia, and Wulfred arch- 
bishop, in the beginning of the ninth century. In 
the following century, upon the coins of Alfred, 
appear for the first time the names of one or two 
places in the west, Winchester, Exeter and Glouces- 
ter; and a few years later, in the reign of his son 
and successor Edward the Elder, we have the earliest 
specimen yet discovered of a coin struck in this 
county: it is very rude and simple, having on one 
side the inscription EADVVEARDREXSAXONVM, 
in four lines, on the other, the word BAP, with two 
small crosses.* 
Athelstane’s power was more extensive than that 
of his predecessors. In addition to the title “ Rex 
Saxonum” or “Rex Occidentalium Saxoniorum ” 
used by them, he adopted that of “Rex Totius 
Britannia” contracted on his coins to “Rex To. Brit.” 
Of these we have many specimens struck in most of 
the principal towns of England, from Exeter in the 
south west, to York in the north east; and amongst 
them three belonging to this county, one of Bath, 
and two of Langport (the only coins of the latter 
town which have yet been discovered): these have 
* See platel, fig. I. 
