Image: Fragment of a silver penny of Edward the Confessor, hammer cross type. Late Saxon/Early Medieval.
Edward the Confessor was born to King Aethelred II and Emma of Normandy in Islip, Oxfordshire, sometime between 1002 and 1005. He was elected King of England by popular choice after the death of his half-brother, King Harthacnut on the 8th of June 1042, and was crowned in Winchester on Easter Day 1043.
His rule was defined by family and political tensions, especially with Godwin Earl of Wessex, the father of his own wife Edith. However, Edwards character and religious piety made him popular among his subjects and the Church. Edward was officially canonised as a Saint and Confessor by Pope Alexander III in 1161; a Confessor being a Saint who suffered for their Christain faith but who wasn’t martyred.
Edward died on the 5th of January 1066 with no heirs, resulting in two of the most famous battles in British History; The Battle of Stamford Bridge and the Battle of Hastings. These two battles resulted in the end of Anglo-Saxon rule as William, Duke of Normandy, ascended to the throne of England.
This silver coin from our collection at Jarrow Hall was recovered during the 1963-78 archaeological excavations of Jarrow Monastery by Dame Rosemary Cramp in “context 413, the debris surrounding building A”. It is from the reign of Edward the Confessor and was made by placing a blank silver disk between two moulds, or dies, and striking it with a hammer to stamp the designs on to both sides at the same time. On one side we see the partial remains of a cross, and the other a likeness of Edward the Confessor himself. We know that this coin was probably made between 1059 and 1065 in Bedford by someone named Sigod.
But how do we know all of this when we only have a fragment of the coin?
Well, it’s written on the coin; “DPAR” can be read on one side and “EDEFO” on the other. Admittedly this does seem like gibberish, but through close examination and comparative study of similar coins found elsewhere in Britain, archaeologists at the time of the coins discovery were able to complete the inscriptions so that they made sense; the full inscription should read [+EA]DPAR[RD RE] on one side and +[SIGOD ON B]EDEFO on the other. This translates to “Edward Re” or Rex, meaning King and “Sigod of Bedford”. This kind of analysis of historical coins is called Numismatics.
Image: An intact example of a silver penny of Edward the Confessor, hammer cross type. Late Saxon/Early Medieval. Found in the Purchase Records of Richard Cyril Lockett (1873-1950) (British Numismatics Society 2022). Referenced by Marion M. Archibald when identifying the coin found at Jarrow.
We don’t know why this coin is damaged, however, it was common practice in the Medieval period to cut coins into pieces to make change. Silver, which this penny is made of, has been used to make coins for thousands of years as it is easy to work with, light enough to transport, and rare enough to be consistently valuable. The value of the coin was based on its weight in silver which meant that as long as two coins weighed the same, they were worth the same amount of money no matter when or where they were from. So, if you bought something with a silver coin and were owed change, it made sense just to cut the coin in half, making two pieces of silver worth half of a silver coin each.
This coin is one of 49 found during archaeological excavations at Jarrow and Wearmouth, a small but significant collection. It is being showcased here on the JAMCam as part of the countdown to The Jarrow Archaeology Mission as an example of the amazing potential archaeological excavation has to shed more light on the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval monastic life at Jarrow.