The Monetary Reforms of King Offa.

 

From the time the Roman legions pulled out of Britain just after 400 A.D. until roughly 600 A.D., the country was truly in the "Dark Ages". Very little is known of British history from this time; we only know that as the curtain lifted, the country was largely under the rule of Saxon "kings" - some petty, some not so petty, some even vassals of yet others and always the boundaries of these "kingdoms" were in constant flux as all attempted to enlarge their domains. It was not until about 750 A.D. that the set lines of real kingdoms started to take shape.

During this period, there was not a lot of coin in circulation and such as there was of innumerable types. Hoards of Roman coins were found and spent as-is or sometimes used as patterns on which copies - faithful or not-so-faithful - were made. There is, in fact, a huge series that is entirely anonymous; we have no idea as to who issued them and only the vaguest as to their approximate time of issue.

The coin in use came to be dumpy little copper and silver pieces, about the diameter of 3d silver pieces of modern times but thicker. These were called a "sceat" and translated as "treasure" in old Saxon, "sceattas" plural. This was not really a denomination as much as a general term for "coin"; therefore they had "copper sceats" as well as "silver sceats". There was very little need for gold and such as there was tended to be Byzantine.

In the second half of the eighth century, Offa, sometimes called "the Great", King of central England , conquered most of the southeast and proceeded to scrap the old sceattas in favour of a new coin: the denarius , later to have its name changed to penny . Scholars today are not quite sure where the first of these were struck, some assigning the place to London in about 760 A.D., others opting for Canturbury some years later. In any case, he coined these pieces on a new standard - and a highly logical one - since he struck 240 of them from a pound of silver. Therefore by either count or weight, they were the same: 240 "pennies" both weighed a pound of silver and equalled £1 value. The coin was broader but thinner than the old sceat , allowing more room for design and legends.

 

Alchred, King of Northumbria , 765-774 A.D. Silver sceat, about 1½ actual size.   Unusual only in that the coin carries his name.

Surprisingly, little was standardized as to the design of Offa's new denarii and there are a large number of obverse and reverse types. There is even one very large division: those with his portrait and those with legends and ornamental designs only. Even his queen, Cynethrith, issued coins of these two major types. Although today's collectors almost universally call the Offa "Portraits" the handsomest contemporary coins west of Byzantium , the production of their dies must have been unusually time-consuming and it wasn't long before denarii of much simpler type appeared.

 

Offa, silver Denarius, "Portrait Type" Offa, silver Denarius, "Design Type"

Offa's coins and their standard were widely adopted by other countries. Pepin the Short, mayor of Paris , restored sound money in that area with a new denier before 760 which was a close copy of Offa's. Some years later, when Boguslav the Mighty established the earliest Polish coinage, he copied that of England so slavishly that the first appear carrying the name of Aethelred I, the current king of England , and a London minter. English pence became the first models for the coinages of Denmark , Sweden and Norway as well as brief coinages of Dark-Age Ireland. Their imitation in the Low Countries and southern Germany was so widespread as to become a nuisance in England some time later.

It was the adoption of the coin by the Germans, Saxons and Scandinavians that saw Offa's denarius become a penny in later times. To these former people, the coin was familiar as a pfennig and penny is a corruption of this name - even though it continued to be written as "d." right up until modern times.

Offa, Gold "dinar" in imitation of a contemporary Arab dinar. (approx.actual size)

Offa didn't stop with a silver coin but continued on to issue what is believed to be the first gold coin struck for England in post-Roman times. In size, weight and fineness, it is a copy of a contemporary Arab gold dinar , even to retaining most of the Arabic legends, with only OFFA / REX to distinguish it. It is extremely rare today and probably was not struck in great numbers originally.

Wayne Jacobs is numismatic expert. He is the award winning author of numerous articles. He is the secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.