Anglo Saxon Coins Facts: Are You Curious About Their Currency?

The history of the Anglo-Saxons dates back to the Roman period.

As some of you would know, England was under the occupation of the Roman Empire for over 400 years. Finally, the Romans left all their posts and garrisons and headed back to Rome in 410 AD.

This was because Rome itself was facing the constant threat from invaders across its frontiers in northern Europe and were not in a position to maintain their posts and settlements in England. As a result of the political vacuum that was created after the Romans departed England, a new power struggle ensued in the region.

The initial victors were kings hailing from the Christian-Romano Britons, who, to strengthen their hold on their kingdoms, hired overseas mercenaries to fight their wars with other local kings. This resulted in the first wave of Saxon immigration into England across the North Sea.

But once the mercenary Saxon soldiers found that the soil in England was far more fertile than the one they had left behind in continental Europe, they decided to settle there and farm the lands.

Soon large-scale immigration began to take place from the continent, and as a result of that, the native tribes, consisting of the Britons, Picts, and Scots, were pushed back to the mountainous terrains of the west and the north in present-day Wales and Scotland.

Another chunk of the native population crossed the sea to settle in the northernmost part of the kingdom of Francia (present-day France). This part of France is still known as Brittany!

You may have begun wondering who the Anglo-Saxons were. They were essentially Germanic tribes, which consisted mainly of the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes.

In the early days of the fifth century AD, these tribes crossed over from the continent of Europe to the island of Britannia (the Roman name for England and Wales) and made it their home. Modern English has its roots in the languages that were spoken by these people.

Then in the ninth century AD, the Vikings started raiding the British coast. Before we talk about anything else, we should tell you a little about the Vikings. The Vikings were people of the countries that together formed Scandinavia.

If you take an atlas, you will find countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and more, on the map of Europe. This region of Europe is called Scandinavia. They lie to the extreme north of continental Europe and have a very harsh climate.

During the eigth century AD, Viking warriors and explorers decided to head west of their lands to find more fertile lands. A legendary Viking named King Ragnar Lothbrok is supposed to be the first Viking to have landed on the east coast of Britain at Lindisfarne.

Following his expedition, many others arrived in Britain to either raid or settle. Eventually, the Vikings established their kingdom towards the eastern coast of Britain after eliminating the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of East Anglia and Northumberland.

From contemporary British sources, we find that this part of Britain was represented with the name 'Danelaw'.

If you are finding this article, then go ahead and click on Viking raid facts and Viking longship facts.

The History Of Anglo-Saxon Coins

Before the rule of the Anglo-Saxons in England, the Romans were the masters of Britain (present-day England and Wales). When Britain became a part of the Roman Empire under Emperor Claudius, there began a process of Romanization of the province.

In due time, towns and cities came up in several parts of Britain, which were modeled on the ones found in the other parts of the empire. However, the province of Britannia lacked imperial mints for more than 200 years.

It was only really towards the end of the third century AD that coins started to be minted in typical Roman fashion at the workshop in Londinium (the Roman name for London).

These earliest Roman coins were made of gold, silver, and copper. The first imperial mint was set up during the reign of Emperor Diocletian in London in around 300 AD.

This facility continued producing coins until about 324 AD when Constantine the Great was emperor. This would be the last phase of Roman coin production in Britain. The final years of Roman rule saw the supply of imperial coins mainly from the province of Gaul (Roman France).

This was the main source of Anglo-Saxon money when the Anglo-Saxons became the sovereigns of Britain. The sixth century AD saw the coming up of various Anglo-Saxon strongholds throughout the British mainland. The most important of these were the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, and Wessex.

Rulers of these principal kingdoms kept on relying on coin supply from the land of the Frankish rulers across the English Channel. The Merovingian Dynasty was at the helm of affairs in France at this point. The dependence on imported coins meant that coin production remained concentrated in the mints of London and Kent in southern Britain.

The Influence Of The Environment

In the beginning, Anglo-Saxons were not living in a moneyed economy. Soon after the Romans left Britain, common people began leaving the towns and cities to go back to the villages. This resulted in the rise of the barter system in trade.

When the Anglo-Saxons arrived on the scene, this is what they were welcomed with. As a result of this, coins were seen as inessential in day-to-day affairs in Britain. The limited number of coins that were produced were generally used for special purposes such as the purchase of land, overseas trade, payment of fines and taxes, etc.

At the time when Britain was being ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, Christian missionaries from Rome were busy preaching Christianity to the polytheistic practitioners in those kingdoms. Chief among the clergymen who were plying their trade in Britain at that time was a priest named Augustine.

He was extremely instrumental in spreading the religion of Christ in large parts of Britain, and it was he who subsequently became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

In case you are wondering what significance the seat of Canterbury holds in England, we should tell you that it is the highest religious post in England after the crown. Religious links to the Roman Catholic Church meant that pilgrims from Britain made voyages to Rome during this period carrying their currency in their bags.

It is no wonder that we find Anglo-Saxon coins unearthing in Italy.

Coinage In Anglo-Saxon England

The era of Anglo-Saxon coin making began in the seventh century AD. It was then that King Aethelberht of Kent ordered legal matters to be settled with a coin named scillingas (shillings).

The scillinga or shilling was a gold coin that was identical in weight to the tremissis produced by the rulers of the Frankish kingdom. Another gold coin which went by the name of a 'sceat' (skeet) or 'sceattas' (shatters), was in circulation during King Aethelberht's reign. The sceat was one-twentieth of a scillinga.

The depletion of gold reserves in western Europe in the eighth century affected the production of gold coins in Britain. This was the time when the silver penny began taking precedence over gold coinage.

These pennies were called thrymsas and were in use in most parts of Britain. The term 'thrymsas' is a technical term favored by numismatists for this type of penny. In practice, however, they were directly related to the scillingas.

One of the more powerful rulers in Britain of the Anglo-Saxon period was King Offa. He has the King of Mercia but had declared himself to be the king of every other kingdom in Britain.

It was during King Offa's time that a special series of gold coins were minted that featured the bust of both King Offa and his wife Queen Cynethryth on the obverse side. This is the only instance that archaeologists have found the face of an Anglo-Saxon queen on the side of a coin.

Coins Of The British Isles, Colonies, And Commonwealth

In the Isle of Man, bronze coins were introduced in 1709. The Earls of Derby was in charge of this operation for a long time until the Earls of Athol took over from them. The rank of an earl is below that of a king.

This went on until coins of England became part of the system in 1840. In Guernsey and Jersey, the circulation of bronze coins was in motion for about a hundred years until British coins were introduced in 1971. Did you know that a special commemorative penny called the 'liberation penny' came out of Jersey after the Second World War?

England once had a powerful empire spread over different parts of the world. There were sayings that 'the sun never sets on the British Empire' and that 'London was the center of the world'. According to recent estimates, about 62 present-day countries were at one point or the other under the occupation of Britain in the modern era.

Naturally, Britain had to manufacture coins for these overseas territories. It all started with the silver coins that were produced for the East India Company in the earliest years of the 17th century.

This was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Later, under King Charles II's order, silver rupees were produced at the Bombay royal mint with the East India Company's coat of arms on one side.

The colony of Bermuda saw the production of silver and copper coins in mints that had the image of a boar on the obverse side and that of a ship on the reverse. The American plantations also had their coinage system. These were issued under King James II and were made of tin.

In recent times, we find many ex-colonies still producing coins with the image of the British monarch on one side. For example, coins of Australia and New Zealand have the bust of Queen Elizabeth II on one side and any other symbol or image on the other.

But this is not the case with every ex-colony of Britain. Other sovereign nations such as India and Pakistan have completely removed any sign of their colonial past from the face of their coinage system.

Collecting Anglo-Saxon Coins

Since the Anglo-Saxons ruled Britain, naturally, the largest concentration of Anglo-Saxon coins is found in the present-day United Kingdom. But they have been discovered in large quantities outside the UK too.

In the countries of the Scandinavian region, consisting of countries such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and more, Anglo-Saxon coin hoards have been unearthed. This is an indication of thriving trade and commerce between the two regions.

This may surprise you, but coins issued by Anglo-Saxon kings traveled as far away as Russia. Excavations by archaeologists have revealed their existence in Russia in recent times. This proves that the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons had trade links with places located far away from its shores.

The government in the UK has made the hobby of metal detecting legal in recent times. As a result of this, coin enthusiasts regularly go around looking for old coins. A coin enthusiast has recently found a coin hoard containing around five thousand 10th-11th century coins.

The majority of Anglo-Saxon coins find their way to big coin dealers and major auction houses of the UK. At times, museums and rich people buy these coins from the principal dealers. Otherwise, they are either sold legally or in the black market!

The value of Anglo-Saxon coins is very high in the coin market. The value of gold thrymsas is the highest and can fetch thousands of American dollars at auctions.

In 1998, the Subjack collection was sold by Italo Vecchi in London for a very high price. The collection consisted of 121 gold thrymsas. Other Anglo-Saxon coin variants such as the silver sceattas and the silver pennies are comparatively less expensive in the coin market.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Anglo-Saxon coin facts then why not take a look at Aztec Civilization facts or New York economy facts?