Sceatta
Sceattas ( English Sceat ) are early medieval coins, originally in Friesland , Jutland and since the second half of the 7th century by the Anglo-Saxons in England were beaten. These are small silver coins weighing 1 to 1.5 g (diameter approx. 10–13 mm), which, despite their abstract design, provide recognizable images and from which the word “treasure” is derived.
The coins were probably known to contemporaries as "pennies" (old English peningas). They are known in more than a hundred types, derived from the British Museum Catalog of the 1890s and the alphabetical classifications of the British numismatist Stuart Rigold in the 1970s. The metal detector finds the last 50 years have shown that these coins were at the beginning of the 8th century in eastern and southern England in everyday use.
Sceattas have problems with attribution and dating, but show a variety of motifs that point to Celtic , Classical, and Germanic influences. They include crosses, plants, animals, birds, human figures, and monsters recognized by Anna Gannon. A series of coins was linked by Tony Abramson on the basis of iconography with King Aethelbald of Mercia (716–757). This allocation has been recognized as very unlikely by recent research. Based on the iconography of certain sceattas, it has been suggested that they were issued by church bodies. The coinage was not yet an urban or secular privilege.
Assigning sceattas to specific mints or realms is difficult. Most were found with metal detectors. Because of the localities it is possible to ascribe some types to the main distribution areas, the series H to Wessex (especially Southampton ) and the series S to Essex . In Denmark, the X series is linked to the early trading center of Ribe .
The chronology of the Sceattas is also difficult. Some of the earliest series use the same symbols as the pale gold thrones and, by analogy with coins from the better understood Frankish material, can be dated to the 680s. Around 670 Ecgberht I of Kent introduced Sceattas as coins based on the Frankish model. It is known that Sceattas were minted in the Frisian town of Dorestad ; They were a circulating currency in Frankish territory until the currency reform by Pippin the Kurzen in 755.
See also
literature
- Rolf Bärenfänger , Wybrand Op den Velde: The Anglo-Frisian Sceatta Hoard of "Kloster Barthe", Gem. Hesel, Ldkr. Leer, East Frisia from 1838: Catalog and Comment. In: News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory , Volume 81, 2012, pp. 3–80.
- Stuart Rigold: The Principal Series of English Sceattas. In: The British Numismatic Journal , Number 47, 1977, pp. 21-30.
- Volker Zedelius: A new “Maastricht” -type Sceatta from the Rhineland. In: Excavations in the Rhineland `79/80, pp. 159–160.