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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;sylvester, post: 50518, member: 708&quot;]Over recent months my collection has undergone some radical changes, what i&#039;d call a &#039;numismatic shift&#039;. Basically it goes as follows, sixpences OUT, hammered pennies IN.</p><p><br /></p><p>And with this shift i&#039;ve seemingly landed myself into a new, and addictive world. They say there&#039;s no cure for hammereditis... oh boy;</p><p><br /></p><p>Until this morning the oldest coin in my collection was a mere 869 years old. My much loved (by me at any rate) King Stephen penny struck sometime around 1136.</p><p><br /></p><p>However this morning i finally broke the 1000 barrier in more ways than one! Firstly because this coin is roughly 1080 years old and thus secondly because it was issued before the year 1000.</p><p><br /></p><p>Enter King Æthelstan (or Athelstan depending on whether you like digraphs or not), whom ruled England and helped to unify most of the English kingdoms, although he didn&#039;t quite complete this task before his death he had greatly increased the kingdom of his father (Edward the Elder) and his grandfather (Alfred the Great). Which for someone who was reportedly illegitimate wasn&#039;t bad going.</p><p><br /></p><p>Admittedly Athelstan&#039;s death in 939 put paid to the fully unified England as the opposition that had feared and respected him had no such qualms about tackling his successor (and half-brother) King Edmund. Then followed a period of bitter struggles against such individuals as Eric Bloodaxe in the 940s. The successive kings, Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig all battled with mixed results.</p><p><br /></p><p>The work of Athelstan was not revived until the reign of King Eadgar (half brother of Eadwig). Making Athelstan a landmark in English history for his attempts to unify the kingdom, his extensive contributions to the development of better managed written records and his lasting desire to reform the currency so that the silver penny became standard throughout his kingdom. He set the foundations for Eadgar to take the credit.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.omnicoin.com/coins/899049.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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