Celtic and Anglo Saxon Coinage

The Belgae introduced coins to Britain in the second century BC, but they were used for religious offerings, tribute payments, or even hoarded as evidence of wealth, rather than for trade. The Celtic economy was largely conducted by barter, and Caesar noted that iron ingots substituted for money in Britain.

Finds of coins have revealed the names of Celtic chiefs and the rough extent of their territory, and we see their concern with animals and their sneaking respect for aspects of Roman civilisation. Such coins assist archaeologists, since their chronology is established for the period between Caesar's raids and the Roman conquest.
Celtic coins derive from Greek models, particularly the stater (a measurement of weight) bearing Apollo's head on one side and his chariot on the reverse. The design became rougher: the blurred head came to represent some Celtic god, while the chariot shrank to a wheel beneath a distorted horse, the cult animal of the Celts. A single-tailed horse indicates that Cunobelinus, chief of the Catuvellauni, now controlled areas where previously the triple-tailed horse of the Atrebates had decorated the coinage.

The heads on these coins do not portray individuals, but animals, like horses, boars, bulls, eagles and gryphons, priests holding severed heads and horsemen blowing war-trumpets are readily recognisable. When Verica, the pro-Roman chief of the Atrebates, placed a vine-leaf on his coins, Cunobelinus retorted with an ear of barley, as if proclaiming patriotically that British beer was better than Roman wine. However, both these rivals included the Roman title Rex on their coins. Carefully lettered inscriptions, first appearing on British coins circa 25 BC, indicate contact with Rome and some degree of literacy.

These coins were struck in gold, silver and bronze, though some bronze coins were cast in moulds. Inscribed coins often bear the name of the mint: Ver (Verulamium) or Cam {Camulodunum). Coinage spread to the Humber and the Severn amongst the Belgic tribes and their neighbours. The Durotriges of Dorset were still casting coins even after 43 AD, but Apollo and his chariot had been reduced to an abstract arrangement of large dots.

By the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. England was both economically and politically highly sophisticated in comparison with other areas of northern Europe; nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the history of its coinage.

The issuing of coins was a vital function of kingship, and by the 10th century English rulers had come to enjoy complete control over minting. This exclusive royal monopoly was exercised through a complicated network of mints and moneyers (money-dealers) and was a major source of profit for the Crown. As well as indicating a high level of commercial activity, the wide circulation of coins bearing the king's name and portrait was an important reminder of royal authority and a way of augmenting the king's prestige.

Major developments took place in Anglo-Saxon coinage between the seventh and the 11th centuries. The earliest Anglo-Saxon coins, minted in Kent, were of gold, but these were quickly superseded by silver coins known as sceattas, which were small pellets of silver with designs stamped on them. In the 770s, however, sceattas were themselves replaced by a new type of silver coin: the penny. Pennies were struck in wider, thinner discs of metal, stamped out from sheets of silver. Offa of Mercia issued pennies of a high standard in considerable numbers. On one side was the King's name, sometimes with his portrait, and on the other side the name of the moneyer who struck the coin. Offa's coinage set the pattern for the English currency for over 500 years. There were occasional gold issues, and some copper coins in Northumbria, and subsequently some halfpennies were also struck: but the silver penny remained the principal English coin until the 14th century.

The development of the coinage after Offa's death largely reflects the history of Anglo-Saxon England as a whole. During the Danish invasions of the ninth century the numbers of pennies being issued declined, but following Alfred's occupation of London in 886, large-scale minting resumed, and London became an important issuing centre. Other mints, dotted around the country, also developed, and the design of coins varied. Under Edgar. 959-75, there was a thorough reform of the coinage: older issues were withdrawn from circulation and replaced by one standard design of penny for the whole of England.

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