The Coinage of Bishop Eadberht Reconsidered

Abstract

Coinage in the reign of Offa of Mercia (757–96) includes many interesting elements besides that of Offa himself. There are pennies in the names of minor rulers from East Anglia and Kent, as well as the first known issues of the archbishops of Canterbury and the first and only coins in the name of an Anglo-Saxon queen.1 In addition, there is a small group of coins struck jointly by Offa and a bishop named Eadberht. At least 22 specimens are known (struck from 10 Offa dies and 14 Eadberht dies), of which 16 have a recorded find provenance, all but one of them found in England (summarised in Table 1; a selection of examples is shown in Figure 1).