Coinage in Anglo-Saxon England
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Coinage in Anglo-Saxon England refers to the use of
Archaeologists have uncovered large quantities of coins dating to the Anglo-Saxon period, either from
History
5th to 7th centuries
Early in the 5th century, when Britannia, broadly comprising what is now England and Wales, ceased to be a province of the Roman Empire, the production of coinage effectively came to an end and a non-monetary economy developed. During the 5th century, Anglo-Saxon tribal groups from continental Europe migrated to central and southern Britain, introducing their own language, polytheistic religion and culture. Although gold coins from continental Europe were traded into Anglo-Saxon England at Kent, they were initially used for decorative purposes, only beginning to be used as money in the early part of the 7th century.[3][4]
The first Anglo-Saxon coins were produced by
In about 675 the gold shilling was superseded by the silver penning, or penny, amongst the Anglo-Saxons, and this would remain the principal English monetary denomination until the mid-14th century, during the Late Medieval period. Early silver pennies were typically decorated with geometric or pictorial designs, occasionally having the name of the moneyer inscribed on them. More rarely, coins produced in the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia bore the names of monarchs.[9]
8th to 11th centuries
The silver penny remained in use into the 8th century, but suffered continual debasement as its fineness was decreased with each new generation of striking.[10] This trend continued until Eadberht of Northumbria instituted control over the production of his silver coinage around AD 740, control that was followed by the other early English kings in the years after.[10][11]
In the latter part of the 8th century a new style of silver penny appeared in Anglo-Saxon England, thinner and commonly bearing the names of both the king and the moneyer who had struck it. This new type of penny was apparently first introduced in the reign of the Mercian King Offa in about 760.[12]
From the 9th century, monarchs and their governments gained greater power over the control of coin production, and the designs used by different moneyers became standardised. In the 860s, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex formed a monetary alliance by which coinage of a common design could circulate through both of their lands.[13]
During the later Anglo-Saxon period a very small number of gold coins were produced. Nine are known, including a gold penny of
References
Footnotes
- ^ Blackburn 1999. p. 113.
- ISBN 0953863077.
- ^ Blackburn 1999. p. 113.
- ISBN 0521260094.
- ISBN 0199254656.
- ISBN 0714105554.
- ^ Blackburn 1999. p. 113.
- ISBN 0521260094.
- ^ Blackburn 1999. p. 113.
- ^ ISBN 9780521260169.
- ISBN 0521260094.
- ^ Blackburn 1999. p. 113.
- ^ Blackburn 1999. p. 113.
- Dix Noonan Webb. 29 July 2021.
- ^ Stewart, I. Anglo-Saxon gold coins in Scripta Nummaria Romana, Essays Presented to Henry Sutherland Carson & Kraay - editors Spink London 1978 pp143-172
Bibliography
- Blackburn, M.A.S. (1999). "Coinage". The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Eds: Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg). Oxford: Blackwell: 113–116.
Further reading
- Fairbairn, Henry (October 2019). "Was There a Money Economy in Late Anglo-Saxon and Norman England?". English Historical Review. 134 (570): 1081–1135.
- Naismith, Rory (2011). Money and Power in Anglo-Saxon England: The Southern English Kingdoms, 757–865. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107006621.