Ever since my dear old aunt gave me a book about British coins (by Seaby, end of the 1960s) I was most fascinated by sceattas. As a boy, they went way above my budget, but some years ago I was able to buy my first one, a Frisian imitation of British sceattas. From my country, for I was born in the north of the Netherlands. That was exciting! And afterwards I bought some more, this is I think the best one: Tiny coin, this is the seller's pic. AR Sceatta, Frisian type. Crowned head t.r., two runic letters. Rev. Cross with figures derived from lettering. 695-740. 9.5 mm, 1.24 gr. Spink 792. Cf. Grierson nr. 639. I was (am still) most interested in those with fable animals because there was a real beauty in the Seaby book. But as it turns out, really good coins with nice mythical animals are quite expensive, mine is not a top coin. AR Sceatta, Eadberht of Northumbria (737-758). Obv. fantastic animal to the left. Rev. EOTBERENTV around a cross. 12 mm, 0.64 gr. But I'm afraid I have to wait until the end of time to find an animal like that on the Wikipedia page of sceattas.
That's a very nice series D continental sceat. The artistry is far superior to my example where the bust has become very abstract. The Northumbrian coins make up a very different subset of sceattas. Sometimes called series Y. They are inscribed and easily attributable and dated, since we know at least a little about the historic figures they name. Northumbrian coins are my main interest actually but I left them out of the initial post since they don't fit that well in the sceatta series. Some are contemporary to the sceattas, such as coins of Aldfrith and Eadberht, but most come later, and the small size stycas continue well into the 9th century. Rather than abstract changing designs, the coins of Northumbria are very conventional, and similar in appearance as the generations pass. Here are a few examples of mine which also feature the "fantastic beast": Aldfrith, king of Northumbria 685-705 O: +ALdFRIduS R: Fantastic animal left Eadberht, king of Northumbria 737-758 O: EOTBEREhTVſ. R: Fantastic animal facing left Alchred, king of Northumbria 765-774 O: +AΓCHRED R: Fantastic animal facing right, cross below Æthelred I, king of Northumbria, first reign (774-779) O: EDILRED R: Fantastic animal facing right, triquetra below, cross under tail Ælfwald I, king of Northumbria 779-788 O: +AΓEFDLAV (to be read 'AΓEF VALD', partly retrograde) R: Fantastic animal facing left
I am bowled over by @Nap 's fantastic collection! Everyone else have also posted some incredible coins. Thanks for the eye-candy! I am fascinated by them. These were produced by Anglo-Saxon tribes (German) with a distinctive overall design. The are very reminiscent of the CELTIC designs from 800 - 1000 years EARLIER. Very cool! I have NO A-S Sceatts... but a couple Celtics to show similarity: Celtic Britain Iceni Boudicca 61 CE 1.03g Celt Hd r Celtic horse galloping Scarce Celtic Imitation Philip II AR Drachm Kugelwangel type - pecunum auction
I believe the word sceatta is also the origin of Scot as in scot free, that is sceatta free or at no cost.
One more unusual type, recently acquired: Eclectic sceat, "fledgling" type O: Wolf head facing right, coiled serpent facing wolf R: Creature running right with legs, a body twisted into a triquetra, and a three pronged tail. Sometimes called a fledgling
for starters. What are the first 4 coins telling me. Do i see an alligator on coin 8. Now ill read your info. Coins are in great shape. Why no queen coins
Oh. Good writeup. That answers all my question except for the alligator on coin 8. Guess I'll never know. I looked at the coins first. Then tripped a little bit. Trying to make sense of them. Then read a fine explanation of your coins. What a treat. Glad i did it that way
Beautiful collection, @Nap ! That's a fascinating period of history. When I was a kid my mother took me to see the movie "Alfred the Great." The movie inspired me to go to the library and look at all of the books about Anglo-Saxon England and Danelaw.
I love these. It's a fascinating period of history: arguably this is when the modern world was born, with the emergence of English common law. But we know frustratingly little about it. As the original post described well, the classification of these coins is quite vague. This is my favourite of my small collection. Condition isn't great, but I love the crazy mythical animal designs. I really regret turning down a few great ones at a recent coin fair.
That is a wonderful example with some really appealing designs. It just has that aura of "Dark Ages" mystique to it.