100 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[May 1, 1896. 



Eardwulfl. 'I'lie legend on each side is preceded by 

 a cross, and this is a very usual practice on all coins 

 of the middle ages. The most interesting piece in 

 this archiopiseopal series is, however, the gold solidus 

 (No. 2;i) struck by \Vigmund (a.d. 8S7-H.'')4 •.'). It reads 

 on the obverse vigmvndarep, and presents a (conven- 

 tional) portrait of thf archbishop, with tonsured crown. 

 The reverse reads mvnvs DIVINVM (" An olTering to 

 God"'?). The occurrence at such a date of a fuUi'aced 

 bust on coins struck north of the Alps, or of a bust of 

 any kind in Northumbria, is exceedingly rare. 



Keary* bridges the gap between the series which we 

 have described and the penny coinage which succeeds them 

 by means of a transition pirce (No. 24), which he ascribes 

 to Beonna, perhaps an l'',ast Anglian king. In fabric 

 and weight this coin stan Is nearer to the sceat series, 

 but in design and style of inscription it must be ranked 

 with the pennies. The inscription on the obverse is partly 

 in Runic letters, and equivalent to BEONNA REX ; the name 

 of the moneyer is EFE. 



The introduction of the silver penny was one of the 

 most far-reaching changes in the history of English coinage ; 

 and this change was due to a similar change in the coinage 

 on the other side of the Channel. The denier was intro- 

 duced in France by Pepin the Short about 755. The 

 transition piece desciibed above is dated by Keary about 

 7G0. 1 The earliest pennies certainly attributable to any 

 king are those of Offa, King of Mercia (757-796). Some 

 time after 760, therefore, it is probable that this great 

 innovation was made. The penny coinage was, however, 

 not adopted in Northumbria until a century later. For 

 nearly five centuries henceforth there was no real change 

 in the English coinage, the silver penny being the only 

 currency.^ 



The weight of the denier when first introduced was 

 about 19 grains troy, but in twenty years it had risen to 

 236 grains. The English pennies began lower, and rose 

 in time to about the same average weight, though they are 

 occasionally in excess of the weight of 24 grains which, 

 from its connection with the silver penny, came to be 

 known as the " pennyweight." 



Oifa's coinage presents a remarkable variety of types. 

 The commonest are the conventional bust of the king, and 

 a cross in some form or other. The name of the moneyer 

 on the first piece given here (No. 25) is meant for Eadhun 

 or Eadmund. The second piece (No. 26, reading OFFA 

 REX and BAHHARD, i.e., Bannard) is one of the many 

 pieces from which the king's bust is absent. 



The coins of Offa are artistically quite the best produce d 

 in England during all the period which we have to consider 

 in this article. The money of his successors does not show 

 the same variety of types and skill in workmanship. ; As to 

 the origin of these types, some of them are doubtless due to 

 native ingenuity ; others are copied from the dealers of 

 France, others from sceats, and others again from Roman 

 coins (for at this time Roman gold coins were still in wide 

 circulation). 



It will be most convenient to divide the history of the 

 coinage, from the introduction of the penny up to the point 

 at which the present article is to stop, into two main 

 periods : (1) the history of the various kingdoms up 



* Introduction to Vol. I of the " Catalogue of Englisli Coins in 

 the British Mufeuni," p. xxiii. I must here acknon-ledge my 

 constant indebtedness to the introductions to Vols. I. and II. of the 

 English Catalogue. 



+ A Beorna is mentiourd by Florence of Worcester in 7.3S 



t Apparent exceptions will be dealt with as they occur. 



§ The heads on some of tlie coins of Offa are so good that one is 

 almost justified in calling them portraits. 



to the unification of England ; (2) thence to the Norman 

 ('onquest. 



The first period is one of considerable political confusion, 

 but the state of the country had not so disastrous an eifect 

 on the coinage as it had, for instance, in later times under 

 Stephen. The coins are fairly legible and neat. We may 

 divide them into two series ; a regal and an ecclesiastical or 

 semi-ecclesiastical. The regal series naturally divides 

 itself into the coinages of the various kingdoms : Kent, 

 East Anglia, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. Oftheae 

 the tirst had ceased to be important while the anonymous 

 sceats were still the only coinage. 



The last King of Kent, ]3aldred, was deposed by Ecgbeorht 

 of Wessex in 825. The coin given here (No. 27) reads 

 BELDRED REX CAN (i.i\, !'>aldred. King of Kent) on the 

 obverse, and OBA (i.e., the moneyer's name) on the 

 reverse. 



The coinage of East Anglia may be illustrated (in 

 addition to the piece of Beonna described above) by a coin 

 of -Ethelberht (No. 28), who was killed in 704. The name 

 of the king is partly in Runic letters ; the reverse bears 

 the title REX and a type copied from the wolf and twins so 

 common on the Roman coinage. This penny is, however, 

 quite exceptional ; the later pieces belong to the usual 

 kind. 



Of the Northumbrian penny series, which begins with 

 the invasion of the " great army " in 866, we may describe 

 a halfpenny struck by Siefred (894 to about 898) at 

 York. (No. 29; obverse RSIEVERT ; reverse EBIAICECIVI. 

 The spelling EBRAICE ClVi(tas) corresponds to the form 

 EBORACVM by which the Romans represented the British 

 name which, through the form Eoferwic, has come down 

 to us as York.) The halfpenny and farthing were also 

 sometimes produced (less frequently at this time than 

 later) by simply cutting the coin into halves and quarters, 

 a process to which their thinness and frequently their 

 cruciform types specially adapted them. We have already 

 described some specimens of the earliest Mercian pennies, 

 and we may therefore pass to the kingdom of Wessex. 

 The greatness of this kingdom began with the battle of 

 Ellandune, in 825, in which Ecgbeorht defeated Beom- 

 wulf. King of Mercia. On this soon followed the acknow- 

 ledgment, more or less formal, of Ecgbeorht's supremacy on 

 the part of East Anglia and even Northumbria. Kent was 

 entirely absorbed in Wessex, with curious results as regards 

 the coinage of the latter kingdom ; for it appears that the 

 coinage of Ecgbeorht is really a Kentish coinage, issued 

 very largely either in Kent itself or by Kentish moneyers. 

 A series of coins of Ecgbeorht exists with a monogram 

 generally explained as that of the Latin name of Canter- 

 bury (Ihirtihernia). There are, however, coins with the 

 legend sax or SAXONIORVM, which most probably are 

 of pure West Saxon origin ; and the coinage of Mercia had 

 also considerable influence on that of its conqueror. In this 

 connection two most important coins, discovered within 

 the last few years, must be mentioned. The first (No. 

 30) has the obverse legend ecgberht rex M, i.e., 

 Kingof the Mercians; and on the reverse lvndonia civiT. 

 This is the first instance of the appearance of London as a 

 mint on English pennies. On the second, which gives the 

 king the same title, we have the name of the moneyer 

 Redmund. who is otherwise associated with Wiglaf, the 

 Mercian king deposed by Ecgbeorht some time after the 

 battle of Ellandune. These two coins are therefore 

 interesting illustrations of the beginning of the rise of 

 W^essex. 



After the establishment of the ^\'est Saxon supremacy, 

 the chief element in English history is supplied by the 

 s^reat invasions from across the North Sea. Into the 



