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Message:: [QUOTE="Nap, post: 2487729, member: 73099"]The division between sceats and stycas is not so simple. Most scholars will say it happened ~790 when the king's moneyers started placing their names on the reverses.  So the first stycas were made for Aethelred I or possibly Aelfwald I.  This is possibly too simplistic a definition. Others argue that the stycas began when the currency became debased during the reign of Eanred (810-840), and the transition from silver to brass took place.  So coins pure of silver are called "sceats" while the mostly copper coins are called "stycas". In any case, the coin you have posted is a styca (by any definition) of Aethelred II of Northumbria, by moneyer Alghere.  By the conventional dating, it probably dates from his first reign (841-844), or perhaps a decade later if you go with the alternate dating scheme. There is but a single "penny" in the Northumbrian series, a coin of King Eanred imitating contemporary coinage of Ecgbert or Aethelwulf of Wessex, it is a unique coin in the British Museum and is probably a commemorative issue, not meant for regular circulation.  All other Northumbrian coins are sceats and stycas, until the Vikings took over and issued pennies in the style of the southern English kingdoms.[/QUOTE]