Year in review 2018- medieval Anglo-Saxon coins

Once you get the hang of it, identifying stycas is not too bad. It gets a little trickier when the legend is retrograde or the letters are backwards. Then you get D and thorn being used interchangeably. Wynn and V are used interchangeably. And sometimes E and F are used interchangeably. And there’s a number of different ways that ‘Aethelred’ is spelled.

Here are a few of mine from this year. The first 5 are from the Archbishop Sharp collection.


Aethelred II / Eardwulf
O: +EDILRED REX
R: +EARDVVLF


Aethelred II / Fordred
O: +EDILRED RI
R: +FORDRED


Aethelred II / Brother
O: +EDILRED REX
R: +BRODER


Eanred / Fulcnoth
O: +EANRED REX (retrograde)
R: +FOLCNOD M (retrograde)


Eanred / Brother
O: +EANRED REX (retrograde)
R: +BRODR


Redwulf / Fordred
O: +REDVLF RF (retrograde)
R: +EORDRED

 

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Thanks for the information about the retrograde inscriptions. That would have had me scratching my head otherwise. Unless there was widespread dyslexia among the designers and engravers, I can't see the point of doing the inscriptions back to front unless you intend using a mirror to look at them. And I don't think there were many mirrors around back then!