Anglo-Saxon

Three artefacts found by metal detection in recent years appear to have design elements in common with the early pennies of Beonna of East Anglia (749 – c.760). These may have had commercial purposes, possibly as weights. This article by Tony Abramson explores the possibilities.

In late 2020, a find of an early Northumbria penny from Hayton, East Yorkshire, cast new light on the chronology of the northern royal silver coinage. The coin has a die link with an extremely rare type associated with the patrician king Aethelwald Moll, yet bears the named-moneyer reverse attributed to his son’s second reign three decades later. In this article, Tony Abramson suggests how this find may fit into the sequence.

Instances of pennies in the late Anglo-Saxon period with altered mint signatures are exceedingly rare. This note discusses a Radiate Small Cross type penny of Edward the Confessor of Watchet that was struck from a reverse die showing clear signs of alteration to the mint name. The author argues that the die had first been cut for use at Bedwyn and then altered for use at Watchet. Stewart Lyon was asked to comment on the paper and has kindly supplied an alternative reading.

A discussion of the evidence for an intriguing early nineteenth century coin hoard from Laxfield, Suffolk, which may or not have had both a Carolingian denier component as well as an Anglo-Saxon element. The note also draws attention to the fact that the late Tony Merson possessed a parcel of Carolingian deniers which he believed to derive from the hoard in question.

A new coin of the Anglo-Saxon mint of Aylesbury adds a new moneyer to the small complement already known there, and opens up the possibility that the mint was established by moneyers from the nearby established mint of Northampton.  Two further coins of the mint are also recorded for the first time.

The late Anglo-Saxon coinage minted between the early 970s and the Norman Conquest of 1066 is one of the most extensively studied portions of medieval English currency. Even so, new surprises continue to emerge. One such is a Harold I penny from a recent auction which presents, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first known instance of a street-name on Anglo-Saxon coinage.  The occurrence of one street name opens up the possibility that certain other puzzling mint-signatures could reflect streets or districts within larger centres rather than separate locations.

A moneyer by the name of Eotberht was proposed in Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, volume 68, as a new moneyer for the Northumbrian king Æethelred I.  Another coin has now come to light on the Portable Antiquities Scheme which helps to shed some light on the identification of this “new” moneyer.  From examination of the images and review of the die characteristics, it appears that Eotberht is not a new moneyer at all, but rather seems likely to be a new spelling for a known moneyer, Ceolbald.  This article reviews some the coinage of Ceolbald and tries to draw some conclusions based on the available data.  The coins of Ceolbald are discussed, along with some commentary on the rare “double obverse” coin of  Æethelred I, which fits into this grouping and is also presumably a Ceolbald issue.