Editing Offa of Mercia (section)

==Coinage==
[[File:Offa moneyer Edelmod 7 8th century.jpg|thumb|Reverse of a coin of Offa, bearing the name of the moneyer Ethelnoth. [[British Museum]], London]]
At the start of the 8th century, [[sceatta]]s were the primary circulating [[coin]]age. These were small silver pennies, which often did not bear the name of either the [[moneyer]] or the king for whom they were produced. To contemporaries these were probably known as pennies, and are the coins referred to in the laws of [[Ine of Wessex]].<ref name=Stenton_222>Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', p.&nbsp;222.</ref><ref name=IWL>A transcription of Ine's laws can be read at {{cite web| url = http://www8.georgetown.edu/departments/medieval/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/prose/laws.html#cap44| title = Laws of Alfred and Ine| access-date = 30 December 2007| publisher = Georgetown University| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071217131452/http://www8.georgetown.edu/departments/medieval/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/prose/laws.html#cap44| archive-date = 17 December 2007| df = dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=BG_157>Blackburn & Grierson, ''Medieval European Coinage'', p.&nbsp;157.</ref> This light coinage (in contrast to the heavier coins minted later in Offa's reign) can probably be dated to the late 760s and early 770s. A second, medium-weight coinage can be identified before the early 790s.<ref name=BG_278>Blackburn & Grierson, ''Medieval European Coinage'', p.&nbsp;278.</ref> These new medium-weight coins were heavier, broader and thinner than the pennies they replaced,<ref name=Stenton_222/> and were prompted by the contemporary [[Carolingian]] currency reforms.<ref name=Kirby_175/> The new pennies almost invariably carried both Offa's name and the name of the moneyer from whose mint the coins came.<ref name=Stenton_222/> The reform in the coinage appears to have extended beyond Offa's own mints: the kings of [[East Anglia]], Kent and [[Wessex]] all produced coins of the new heavier weight in this period.<ref name=BG_277>Blackburn & Grierson, ''Medieval European Coinage'', p.&nbsp;277.</ref>

Some coins from Offa's reign bear the names of the archbishops of Canterbury, Jænberht and, after 792, Æthelheard. Jænberht's coins all belong to the light coinage, rather than the later medium coinage. There is also evidence that coins were issued by [[Eadbrightus|Eadberht]], who was [[Bishop of London]] in the 780s and possibly before. Offa's dispute with Jænberht may have led him to allow Eadberht coining rights, which may then have been revoked when the see of [[Lichfield]] was elevated to an archbishopric.<ref name=BG_279>Blackburn & Grierson, ''Medieval European Coinage'', p.&nbsp;279.</ref>

[[File:Offa and Cynethryth pennies.gif|thumb|left|300px|Two silver pennies of Offa's reign. The right-hand penny portrays Cynethryth.]]

The medium-weight coins often carry designs of high artistic quality, exceeding that of the contemporary Frankish currency.<ref name=BG_278/> Coin portraits of Offa have been described as "showing a delicacy of execution which is unique in the whole history of the Anglo-Saxon coinage".<ref name=Stenton_223/> The depictions of Offa on the coins include a "striking and elegant" portrait showing him with his hair in voluminous curls, and another where he wears a fringe and tight curls. Some coins show him wearing a necklace with a pendant. The variety of these depictions implies that Offa's die-cutters were able to draw on varied artistic sources for their inspiration.<ref name=Gannon_31-2>Gannon, ''Iconography of Early Anglo-Saxon Coinage'', pp.&nbsp;31–32.</ref>

Offa's wife [[Cynethryth]] was the only Anglo-Saxon queen ever named or portrayed on coinage, in a remarkable series of pennies struck by the moneyer Eoba.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Coupland |first=Simon |date=2023 |title=A coin of Queen Fastrada and Charlemagne |journal=Early Medieval Europe|volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=585–597 |doi=10.1111/emed.12640 |s2cid=258491265 |doi-access=free }}</ref> These were probably derived from contemporary coins from the reign of the [[Byzantine]] emperor [[Constantine VI]], who minted a series showing a portrait of his mother, the later Empress [[Irene (empress)|Irene]],<ref name=BG_279-80>Blackburn & Grierson, ''Medieval European Coinage'', pp.&nbsp;279–280.</ref> though the Byzantine coins show a frontal bust of Irene rather than a profile, and so cannot have been a direct model.<ref name=BF_Women_39>Pauline Stafford, "Political Women in Mercia" in Brown & Farr, ''Mercia'', p.&nbsp;39.</ref>

Around the time of [[Jænberht]]'s death and replacement with [[Æthelhard|Æthelheard]] in 792–93, the silver currency was reformed a second time: in this "heavy coinage" the weight of the pennies was increased again, and a standardised non-portrait design was introduced at all mints. None of Jænberht's or Cynethryth's coins occur in this coinage, whereas all of Æthelheard's coins are of the new, heavier weight.<ref name=BG_280>Blackburn & Grierson, ''Medieval European Coinage'', p.&nbsp;280.</ref>

[[File:Offa king of Mercia 757 793 gold dinar copy of dinar of the Abassid Caliphate 774.jpg|thumb|A [[mancus]] or gold [[dinar]] of Offa, a copy of the dinars of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]] (774)]]
There are also surviving gold coins from Offa's reign. One is a copy of an [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] [[dinar]] struck in 774 by Caliph [[Al-Mansur]],<ref name=BF_211>Williams, ''Mercian Coinage'', p.&nbsp;211,</ref> with "Offa Rex" inserted into three lines of arabic, which are inverted. The inscription is the [[shahada]]h, the Islamic declaration of faith, and reads " الله‎ محمدرسول " ("Muḥammad rasūl Allāh") which translates as "Muhammad, messenger [of] God". It is likely that the moneyer had no understanding of [[Arabic]] as the Arabic text is poorly reproduced. The coin may have been produced to trade with [[Al-Andalus|Islamic Spain]]; or it may be part of the annual payment of 365 [[mancus]]es that Offa promised to Rome.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TGkz9NGFXIMC&q=manqush+coin&pg=PA327 |title=Medieval European Coinage By Philip Grierson p.330 |access-date=17 August 2012|isbn=9780521031776 |last1=Grierson |first1=Philip |last2=Blackburn |first2=Mark A. S. |year=1986 |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> There are other Western copies of Abbasid dinars of the period, but it is not known whether they are English or Frankish. Two other English gold coins of the period survive, from two moneyers, Pendraed and Ciolheard: the former is thought to be from Offa's reign but the latter may belong either to Offa's reign or to that of Coenwulf, who came to the throne in 796. Nothing definite is known about their use, but they may have been struck to be used as alms.<ref name=BG_281>Blackburn & Grierson, ''Medieval European Coinage'', p.&nbsp;281.</ref><ref name=Stenton_223-4>Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', pp.&nbsp;223–224.</ref>

Although many of the coins bear the name of a moneyer, there is no indication of the mint where each coin was struck. As a result, the number and location of mints used by Offa is uncertain. Current opinion is that there were four mints, in [[Canterbury]], [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]], [[East Anglia]] and London.<ref name=BG_281/>