/';-=09

)(8*=-0/']

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A NEW

ANGLO-SAXON

SOLDUS

The tremissiswas the characteristiccoin of the Dark Ages, and after

the middle of the sixth centurysolidi were only rarelystruckin any
of the Germanickingdomsof westernEurope. Dr. Sutherlandlisted
only fourspecimens,each unique of its type,to whichhe feltjustified
in ascribingan Anglo-Saxon origin.1Three of these bore mounts,or
traces ofmounts,whichshowedthat theyhad been used as ornaments
afterthey had ceased to be used as coins. Possibly, indeed, whether
mounted or unmounted,they had been intended as ornamentsfrom
the first.
To this shortlist there can be added a fifthtype, three specimens
of which are known. One is in the GermanischesNational-Museum
at Nuremberg. The obverse was published in 1909 by Gustav von
Bezold, who assigned to it a date that was approximately correct
(mid-seventh-century)but ascribed it wrongly to the Lombards.2
The second specimen is in the Bibliothque Nationale. It was published in 1945 by Pierre Le Gentilhomme,who assigned it correctly
to the Anglo-Saxons.3 The third specimen belongs, or at any rate
once belonged, to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. It cannot now be
1 C. H. V. Sutherland,
GoldCoinagein theLightoftheCrondaU
Anglo-Saxon
Hoard(Oxford,1948),nos. 20, 21, 22, 76 (pl. i. 28, 29; ii, 1 ; iv. 21).
2 G. von Bezold,"Beitrgezur Geschichte
des Bildnisses",Mittheilungen
1907, p. 78 and pl. ix.
aus demGermanischen
Nationalmuseum,
Jahrgang
3 44Le Monnayageet la circulation
dans les royaumesbarbares
montaire
5thser.,viii ( 1944-5),p. 62 and pl. ii. 4.
en Occident",RevueNumismatique,

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A NEW ANGLO-SAXONSOLDUS

89

traced, but thereis a cast of it in the Fitzwilliam Museum, and it is

fromthis cast that it is published here.4
The three coins have the same obverse and reversetypes, and two
ofthem are fromthe same pair of dies. The dies of the thirdcoin are
very similar,but there are slightvariations in both the obverse and
reverselegends.
1. Obv. 3 MAT o oTAV Bust r.,wearingdiademformedof tworowsof
largepearlswithtwo ties behind,draped withjewelledand embroideredgarmentornamentedwith annulets; portraitureof
nose and mouth
fourthcenturyimperialstyle,withwell-marked
a fishand roundedjaw ; the hairat the back oftheneckforming
tail patternwhichis continuedalongthe draperyofthe shoulder.
Beaded border.
Rev. Crosspotenton threesteps,with (TITM readingupwardson 1.
and (TITRS upwardson r. ; in ex., o Ojo. Beaded border.
Germanisches
National-Museum,
() Nuremberg,
Mnzsammlung
No. 12372. 3-65gm.,includingfragmentof mountadhering
to the reverse,ff Base gold (about 18 carat).
() Paris, BibliothqueNationale. 3-96 gm., includingsimilar
of mount, ff Base gold.
fragment
2. Obv. As last, but A and A insteadof A and A in the legend. Beaded
border.
Rev. As last, but four instead of three steps, and legends reading
DITORT on 1. and DMMAT on r. Beaded border.
(a) FormerlyEmmanuel College, Cambridge; present whereabouts not known. Wt. not known. Fragmentof mount
visiblein bothobv. and rev.,togetherwithlargepiercedhole
of morerecentdate. f-> Qualityof gold not known.
Nothing is known of the provenance of the coins now at Nuremberg and Paris ; that belongingto Emmanuel College was probably
found locally. Le Gentilhomme'sascriptionof the piece to England
is undoubtedly correct. Nothing at all closely resemblingit can be
foundin the Merovingianseriesor in the many uncertainissues of the
Rhineland and Frisia of the sixth and seventh centuries,5while its
4 I am indebtedto theauthorities
National-Museum,
ofthe Germanisches
for their
the BibliothqueNationale,and EmmanuelCollege,Cambridge,
to
I
like
coins.
should
the
to
acknowledge
my
particularly
permission publish
to trace
bursarofEmmanuelCollege,forhisefforts
thanksto Mr.R. Gardner,
thespecimenthatis missing.
6 Cf.theplatesinJ. Werner's
Australische
Mnzdatierte
(BerlinGrabfunde
Friesland
totde elfdeeeuw(2nded., The
Boeles's
P.
and
C.
J.
1935)
Leipzig,
Hague, 1951).

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90

PHILIP GRIERSON

successfulrenderingof the bust is a featurewhich is reproducedin

many of the thrymsaseriesand almost never foundon the otherside
of the Channel.
The obverse type and legend are based on those of a Roman
solidus of the fourthor fifthcentury,moreprobablythe former,since
coins would have been available in this
fewspecimensof fifth-century
for
imitation.
The
legendbegan D N and ended AVG , but the
country
letters on the imitation are much larger than would have been the
case on the Roman original,and are treated in a purely decorative
manner,so that it is impossibleto say exactly to which emperorthe
original belonged. The portrait suggests that it was Valentinian I
or Valens.
The reverse type of the original, with cross potent on steps, a
legend readingoriginallyV I CTORJ A A VCC[A, &c.], and CON OB in
the exergue,was introducedby Tiberius II (578-82) but abandoned
by his successor Maurice. It was revived by Heraclius (610-41) and
continued by all his successors until well into the eighth century.
From Heraclius onwards the final section of the reverse legend was
altered to AVSHfA,&c.],6 and it is one or otherof the last two letters
that accounts forthe curious letter formIT which starts the reverse
legends of no. 1. This puts the imitationas post 610 at the earliest.
A date nearerthe middle of the centuryis suggestedby the isolated
o COo in theexergue,forit derivesfroma C O N OB in whichthe C and B
have tended to separate fromthe ONO and fusewith the rest of the
legend. Such a feature is very evident on the Sicilian solidi of
Constans II (641-68) and his successors.7
In lookingforanalogies to these curious coins,it is only natural to
compare them with the remarkable CIOLH solidus belongingto the
Rev. A. Mallinson.8 Althoughthe types are alike, however,this is no
more than a consequence of the fact that a profilebust was easier to
execute than a facing one and so was generallypreferred,while the
cross-on-stepsreverse was both simple in design and the normal
6 W. Wroth,Catalogna
Coinsin theBritish
Museum
oftheImperialByzantine
doesnotappearon theRavennacoinage
(1908),i, pl. xxiii.2-12. Thisfeature
ofHeraclius(ibid.,pl. xxix.6-10).
7 e.g.Wroth,pl. xxxiii.3-8 (ConstansII ; thecoinsare
ascribedto
wrongly
xxxix.22 (Justinian
themintofCarthage),
II), xl. 21-22 (TiberiusIII).
8 Sutherland,
pl. iv. 21 (pp. 94-95,no. 76).

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A NEW ANGLO-SAXONSOLDUS

91

Byzantine type duringmost of the seventh century.9The style and

treatmentare so completelydifferentthat any relationshipbetween
the coins is unlikely.
A morepromisingline of approach would be throughthe prominent
use of annulets as an ornamentalmotifon the three coins published
here. This is a relativelyuncommon featurewhich they share with
the "Crispus" and "Peada" thrymsasand, ifless markedly,withthe
"Licinius " thrymsas,thoughthe exaggeratedlylarge "pearls " of the
diadem suggested to Le Gentilhomme a linkage with the latter.10
But the exploration of these various possibilitieswould involve one
in a re-examinationof the whole chronologyof early Anglo-Saxon
gold coinage, and go beyond the purposes of the presentnote.
Philip Grierson
9 Dr. Sutherland
datestheC IO L H solidusas latesixthcentury,
andascribes
to King Ceol of Wessex,whoreignedfrom591 to 597 (op. cit.,
it tentatively
reverse
was
pp. 51-52,56). Thisdateseemstometooearly.Thecross-on-steps
onlyin use in the sixthcenturyduringthe veryshortreignof TiberiusII
(578-82),and not,as Dr. Sutherland
mistakenly
says (p. 51), duringthatof
in thewestwas negligible.The VisiMaurice(582-602)as well. Its influence
ofit in Spain,butit had no
gothickingLeovigildstrucka fewrareimitations
in Merovingian
Gaul, and imitationof it in Britainis in the
repercussions
highestdegreeunlikely.The coindoesnotseemto meearlierthanthemiddle
oftheseventhcentury.
10The annuletson the "Crispus"thrymsa,
however,have pelletsin their
whichperhapsputsthemin a different
centres,
category.A rathersimilaruse
ofannuletsis sometimes
foundas a decorative
featureon tremisses
to whicha
Rhenishor Alamannicorigincan probablybe assigned; cf.Werner,op. cit.,
pls. iii. 92 and v. 200,201.

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