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An Eighth-Century Anglo-Saxon Coin from Walton, Aylesbury

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An Eighth-Century Anglo-Saxon Coin from Walton, Aylesbury NOTES AN EIGHTH-CENTURY ANGLO-SAXON COIN FROM WALTON, AYLESBURY The coin described here was found about 1 of finds, such as this one, and preparing a dis- km SE of the modern town centre of Ayles- tribution map. There are hardly any pro- bury in about 1962 when Mr. King, the father venanced finds3, and that is why the Ayles- of the present owner, was gardening at 45 bury coin is historically so important. There Highbridge Road, Walton, Aylesbury (SP were two similar coins in a little hoard found 8254513510). It is a base silver 'sceat' or penny near Cambridge a hundred years ago, and dating from the second quarter of the eighth there is one from Suffolk. Two specimens of century, and minted in East Anglia, Middle related kinds have come from Lakenheath, in Anglia, or Lindsey. The coin was shown at the the north-western corner of Suffolk, and County Museum, and Mr. King has since another from Burrow Hill, Butley, Suffolk. At kindly agreed to allow the Museum to acquire least one has been found at Reculver, near the it1. It is the only eighth-century coin to have Isle of Thanet, but that is a prolific site, and been found in Aylesbury, and one of only a the fact that so few sceattas of this type have very small number from the County. been found among about 80 from east Kent is strong negative evidence that they formed no The designs of the sceat (PI. XII) are purely significant part of the currency there. Similarly pictorial, without any accompanying inscrip- their absence from the prolific site of Hamwic tion. In a simple, almost 'match-stick' style, (Southampton), where more than a hundred the two sides depict respectively an animal and sceattas have been found, proves very con- a bird. The spaces around the designs are filled vincingly that their home region was distant up with random patterns of dots, and there are from Wessex. There are one or two related two crosses, in front of and above the bird. finds from Yorkshire, but other southern types The coin is thin, and weighs only 0.89g. It is of sceattas also turn up in Northumbria. By a classified by S. E. Rigold2 as Series Q. process of exclusion, therefore, and by a The stepping animal and the bird are both careful consideration of negative evidence familiar from other sceattas, engraved in dif- which it would take too long to discuss fully, ferent styles. The animal is associated especi- we may deduce that the Aylesbury coin was ally with Northumbria, while the bird motif, minted probably in East Anglia, Middle here with drooping tail-feathers which make Anglia, or Lindsey. It is tempting to assign one think of a cockerel, is used widely in series Q to Lindsey. Mercia and Wessex. It is the distinctive If so, it has drifted south from its place of 'match-stick' style, as much as anything, origin, to be lost eventually near Aylesbury. In which allows us to group together some fifteen the eighth century most coin was minted at the or twenty sceattas all with related designs ports in the east or south of the country, and a including the same animal and bird, either drift into the hinterland was more or less a together or in combination with other designs corollary of that. A slightly earlier sceat, (a bust, a standing figure) and to think of which is definitely East Anglian, has for them as coming from a single workshop or example been found as far afield as West mint. As the coins have no inscriptions to Wycombe. guide us, the only way we can hope to locate that workshop is by gathering up the evidence In assessing the style of the Aylesbury coin, 176 a necessary precaution is to see whether there parallels, in a coin that passed through the are other specimens stylistically so close that Montagu and Lockett collections, and in a one can be confident that the dies were cut by specimen which Evans noted as having been the same workman. (If the style were irregular, bought in London in 1894. They show that the one would have to ask whether the coin was an Aylesbury coin is the work of an official mint. unofficial copy.) Fortunately, there are good D. M. Metcalf REFERENCES 1. I am indebted to Mr. G. C. Lamb, who suggested that I 3. British Numismatic Journal 47 (1977), 21-30. record the coin, and to the County Museum for supply- ing the excellent enlarged photograph of it, Acc. No. 4. See S. E. Rigold and D. M. Metcalf, 'A check-list of 99.1983. English finds of sceattas', ibid., 31-52. An updated 2. The standard classification of sceattas is an alpha- check-list is in press, to appear in Proceedings of the betical list of 'series' (rather than 'types'), set out in Seventh Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary S. E. Rigold, 'The principal series of English sceattas', History (British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, 1984). 5. 177 .
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