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    Coins and Coin Making

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    Dwitney Bethel
    1. In early Anglo-Saxon England, small gold coins were made locally in the south of England and possibly at York. Silver coins called sceattas later replaced gold coins and bore the names of kings and archbishops on some Northumbrian examples from the late 8th century. 2. When larger silver pennies began to be produced, there was more room for names of kings. Northumbria continued making tiny inscribed coins in silver and then copper called styca until around 855. Viking rulers of York began producing silver pennies in the late 9th century with religious inscriptions or the name of the mint "EBRAICE". 3. In the 10th century, coin

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    Coins and Coin Making

    Uploaded by

    Dwitney Bethel
    53 views2 pages
    1. In early Anglo-Saxon England, small gold coins were made locally in the south of England and possibly at York. Silver coins called sceattas later replaced gold coins and bore the names of kings and archbishops on some Northumbrian examples from the late 8th century. 2. When larger silver pennies began to be produced, there was more room for names of kings. Northumbria continued making tiny inscribed coins in silver and then copper called styca until around 855. Viking rulers of York began producing silver pennies in the late 9th century with religious inscriptions or the name of the mint "EBRAICE". 3. In the 10th century, coin

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    Coins-and-Coin-making

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    1. In early Anglo-Saxon England, small gold coins were made locally in the south of England and possibly at York. Silver coins called sceattas later replaced gold coins and bore the names of kings and archbishops on some Northumbrian examples from the late 8th century. 2. When larger silver pennies began to be produced, there was more room for names of kings. Northumbria continued making tiny inscribed coins in silver and then copper called styca until around 855. Viking rulers of York began producing silver pennies in the late 9th century with religious inscriptions or the name of the mint "EBRAICE". 3. In the 10th century, coin

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    53 views2 pages

    Coins and Coin Making

    Uploaded by

    Dwitney Bethel
    1. In early Anglo-Saxon England, small gold coins were made locally in the south of England and possibly at York. Silver coins called sceattas later replaced gold coins and bore the names of kings and archbishops on some Northumbrian examples from the late 8th century. 2. When larger silver pennies began to be produced, there was more room for names of kings. Northumbria continued making tiny inscribed coins in silver and then copper called styca until around 855. Viking rulers of York began producing silver pennies in the late 9th century with religious inscriptions or the name of the mint "EBRAICE". 3. In the 10th century, coin

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    of 2

    ~ 00

    TRADE
    2. Coins and
    coin-making -
    II;i: l~':~1~'
    r~~'I~~~:::~
    =':~111~1=
    ~ Elizabeth Pirie

    In early Anglo-Saxon times, small gold coins


    were made in Engljind, certainly in the south
    and probably also for a short time at York.
    Other gold coins reached England from the
    Continent as a result of trade.
    Later on,. in the early 8thC,. the use of gold.c ..'}\
    gave way to silver, and many different groups
    of silver coins were made. They are called
    ~' f
    V~.
    ~~~
    sceattas (pr?nounced 'shatters'). In '" V .:)c~
    Northumbrla,
    which England one
    wasofthen
    the divided,
    several kingdoms
    sceattas ofinto
    the Garforth '~,/~j
    *' ""',

    late 8thC are among the very few which have


    names on them; not only of kings (like
    Eadberht) but also of Archbishops of York.
    Coins of Eadberht have been found in
    excavations at York.
    .When, instead of small thick sceattas, large
    silver pennies began to be made by the other
    early English kingdoms, there was more space Eadberht
    on them to show the names of kings, but the
    Northumbrians went on using their tiny
    inscribed coins, first of silver and then of copper ...,,:I!;);'~:;;~~- --.
    (called sty cas), until about AD 855.
    The copper stycas have the name of the
    king or archbishop on one side (called the
    obverse) and the name of the man who made
    the coins (the moneyer) on the other side (the Eanred
    reverse). Stycas .were made at York and possibly ..
    at other places In Northumbria. Some were on these York coins (REX TO BRIT) claimed that
    imitations of the official coins. Athelstan had become king of all Britain.
    Late in the 9thC, when the Vikings I~ 973 a later king, Eadgar, arranged that
    controlled York, they began to make large all coins should have the same design (known as
    numbers of silver pennies. Some, like the ~he type), wh.erever they were made. The most
    continental coins, had short religious I~portant mints were at London, Winchester,
    inscriptions on them; others gave Lincoln, Chester a~d York; all were to strike the
    the name of the mint where same type, and this would be changed at
    they were made: EBRAICE regular intervals. The obverse of each penny
    for Eboracum, the was to bear the king's head surrounded by his
    Latin name for York. name and title; the reverse was to have the
    names of the moneyer and mint around the
    central design. This basic arrangement
    , , continued in use until well into the Middle
    Pennyfor Vikingsof Northumbriac. 89S-905 A Th .
    with religiousinscription:MIRABlllA FECIT: g.es. e penny remalne d the only value of

    t
    coin made. If smaller values were needed, the
    Alfred the Great, King of Wessex (871-99), coin was cut!n two for halfpennies and into
    managed to stop the advance of the Vikings, four for farthings!
    and later Saxon kings (Eadward and Athelstan) ~ ,~ '
    won control of those parts of the country where
    t~e Vikings had settled. This new and growing ,; "'
    ~In~dom of England had ~ penny c?inage made f'~
    In silver at gained
    Athelstan a number of different
    control mints.
    of York for a short \\'
    '
    while after 927, and pennies \Vere made for him Cut halfpennyfrom penny
    ther . I b R Id h .for Anlaf, NorseKing
    e, main y y one moneyer egna .T e title Pennyfor Aethelstanc. 927-39, of York939-41.
    "

    By comparison with the large number of


    other objects, not many coins were found in the
    Coppergate excavations, but they did provide
    important dating evidence and valuable
    information about Viking and English moneyers. .I
    Two coins from abroad were among those
    found, a fragment of a coin from the mint at
    Hedeby in Denmark, and a forgery (imitation) of
    an Arabic coin! Both of these show the contact
    between York and places abroad in the tenth. .
    cen tury. Outhgrlm,Yorkmoneyerfor AethelraedII: first recordof him as
    earlyas979-85.
    In order to make coins , dies were needed (Coinfound at Coppergate,
    York,1977).
    which stamped the design of obverse and
    reverse on to plain discs of metal. To do this,
    the design had to be cut back-to-front on the
    die, so that it came out the right way round on
    the coins. The cutting was done with tiny
    punches, none of which has been recovered.
    However, two iron dies were found at
    Coppergate, one complete and the other
    broken. The intact die was intended to make a
    special issue of St. Peter coins, about the year
    920, but there is no proof that it was ever used,
    since no coin is known which was made from it.
    The broken die was used to stamp coins by the
    moneyer Regnald of York for King Athelstan
    about 930-9. Two pennies, struck from this die
    before it broke, have been traced in the
    museums at Liverpool and Copenhagen.
    The obverse die had a tang (point)
    underneath so that it could be driven into a
    work-bench and held firm. The blank silver disc
    was laid on the die, and the other die held on
    top to sandwich it: the upper die was then
    struck with a heavy hammer, perhaps two or
    three times, to make sure that the design had
    bitten into the sIlver.
    It is not certain just how many coins could
    be struck using such dies -some dies may
    have broken fairly soon, while others may have
    produced very large numbers of coins.

    . Fragment
    of a leadtrial-piece. DieforSt. Petercoins.
    .1 Before a new die was used, it was tested on

    a piece of lead to make sure that the detail was


    accurate. Two lead 'trial-pieces' have been
    recovered from Coppergate which show images
    L dt. I . f or RegnaId 0f Yor.k
    ea ria piece of other coins of this period, so obviously
    . there
    had been a workshop there for making and
    testing coin dies in the tenth century. However,
    the mint where the coins were actually made
    may have been somewhere else in York -this
    is still uncertain.

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