Article
30 January 2023
SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE DARK AGES
Certain coins have proved critical in exploring the historical record, where written accounts either were not created at the time or no longer survive.
This Æthelstan Penny is one such, helping to shed light on a period of the Dark Ages that had fallen into a degree of obscurity.
Æthelstan was a king of the independent Kingdom of East Anglia which emerged following the end of Mercian Supremacy in 825. Unfortunately, the paucity of contemporary written sources means that we know little about events in the region during the first half of the ninth century.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 825 the Mercian King Beornwulf was defeated at the battle of Ellendum by King Ecgberht of Wessex, and then killed by an anonymous king of the East Angles.
Who that king was remained unclear until the Middle Temple hoard – the greatest single source of coins of Ecgberht’s reign – was unearthed in 1893.
The large group, deposited at some point during the 840s, contained 243 early ninth century coins produced under various kings across England. Included within were some 39 pieces of Æthelstan. No coins of any other independent East Anglian ruler were present, making Æthelstan’s primacy clear.
While the discovery helped solve one puzzle, two others remain. The first concerns the moneyer Eadnoth; the second is why portraits of Athelstan appear on early coins from his reign, like the one offered here, but not the later ones.
A moneyer named Eadnoth was responsible for striking pennies for the Mercian king Offa in the 780s and then for coins of the obscure local king Eadwald who usurped power in East Anglia for a brief period during the late eighth century. However, his name then disappears on coins for the first two decades of the ninth century, despite the productive nature of the East Anglian mint under the supervision of the Mercian Kings Coenwulf and Ceolwulf.
Eadnoth reappears c. 824 on the coins of the last Mercian rulers to exercise power within the region, Beornwulf and Ludica, before continuing onto the coinage of the independent king Æthelstan.
Could it be that it is the same name for two moneyers? Could it also be that Eadnoth was a relative – even a son – of Offa’s moneyer?
The penny offered at Noonans was struck at the beginning of Æthelstan’s reign, as part of an issue that probably lasted until c.830.
As Æthelstan portrait pennies were absent from the Middle Temple Hoard, it might be that these early coins had dropped out of circulation by the time the hoard was deposited. However, as the hoard also contained numerous pennies struck under Æthelstan’s Mercian predecessors, Coenwulf, Ceolwulf and Beornwulf, it is difficult to see how damage and loss can have been the reasons that all Æthelstan’s portrait pennies ceased to circulate when those of earlier rulers consistently did not.
One explanation might be that Æthelstan’s Portrait coinage was deliberately withdrawn from circulation to be replaced with a more uniform currency – a policy seemingly employed by the Kings of Wessex during the second half of the ninth century.
Certainly, East Anglian coinage from later in Æthelstan’s reign, and those of his successors Æthelweard and Eadmund, was of a generally consistent design.
“If such a reform was implemented it would help to explain why the portrait pennies of Æthelstan remain so excessively rare, despite the general increase in ninth century coins discovered and excavated over the previous two decades,” said Noonans’ Head of Coins, Tim Wilkes.
With all this in mind, the extremely rare portrait Æthelstan Penny at Noonans, which is in nearly extremely fine condition, carries an estimate of £8,000-10,000.
Catalogue
Additional Links
The following links are related to this article:
Share This Page