A Basic Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Coinage types - by David Darrington.



Early English Gold Coins.

These are called Thrymsa's. They were originally based on Roman gold coins and produced overseas [Anglo-Merovingian types, Tremissis etc..] and then later in this country. They circulated in England as an official bullion coinage. Value at that time was measured by weight in gold, and so unstruck coins or 'blanks' were also used. They are rare and expensive coins, and very difficult to obtain. This coinage was current c.500-c.620 or later.



Sceats.

The English gold coinage gradually became debased and this led to the production of the series of small, thick pictorial coins called by numismatists Sceats or Sceattas. They are unlikely to have been known to the Anglo-Saxons by this name, deniers or denarius was commonly used, as in former times. Again these were produced both abroad and in England. Sceats are fascinating in that many of them have animal forms on the obverse/reverse or both. These include wolves, birds, mythical dragons & centaurs, serpents and others. Recognisable kingly busts begin to appear around this time, and some coins have runic or Latin inscriptions, often blundered. Size is around 10mm in diameter and they are much thicker than silver pennies. Prices depend on condition, and they can often be picked up for next to nothing, especially poorer examples of the common types. Sceats were produced c.620-c.750. The word Sceat is pronounced 'shee-at' . They were made of silver in varying degrees of debasement.



Styccas.

Whilst the remainder of the English kingdoms progressed from sceats to broad-flan pennies in the 750's and later, Northumbria stuck with sceats. These silver coins evolved to include an animal form [probably heraldic] on the obverse and the kings name on the reverse, and eventually standardised with the kings name on the obverse and the name of the moneyer on the reverse. Rapid debasement followed and the voluminous later issues of the early-mid Ninth Century are found in base silver, copper alloy and even brass. They are slightly larger than sceats and about the same thickness. They were produced until c.870, when the area was overrun by the Viking invaders. The word itself is pronounced 'stu-kka' [with the 'u' as in bucket]. The common monarchs such as Eanred & Aethelred II can be bought very cheaply indeed, whilst the earlier silver coins of obscure monarchs such as Alchred are extremely rare and can cost many hundreds of pounds.




Pennies.

Pennies were produced from the late 750's in Mercia and neighbouring countries. They are around two centimetres in diameter and very thin. These were produced up until the Norman conquest and beyond. Some have portraits of kings and archbishops and others are non-portrait types with designs often involving crosses and very many other motifs.

The early pennies feature only the name of the moneyer on the reverse [followed by an abbreviation of the Latin word 'monetarius'], the later ones the moneyer and mint at which it was struck. Regal names and titles vary throughout the period, are often abbreviated and occassionally contain the kings title in full. Not all kings in succession minted pennies, and some pennies were actually issued anonymously. All were made of silver in various quantities. Pennies are generally expensive in finer grades, but poorer quality examples and damaged coins are much cheaper. They were cut in half to produce halfpennies and 'fourths' [quarters] to produce farthings, for much needed small change. A common misconception is that anyone could do this, but in fact the denominations were cut at the mint of issue.

Laws were strict concerning defacement of the coinage. Very limited issues of ROUND halfpence were produced in mid & later Saxon times. These are all excessively rare. By the time of the Norman Conquest the English penny was so widely respected internationally, that William I saw no reason to change anything except to put his own name on the coinage.