ELEMENTS OF EARLY MEDIEVAL COIN INSCRIPTIONS IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND

Meaningful inscriptions on coins of the period covered by this volume consist predominantly of names, typically those of the ruler who presided over the issuing kingdom, the moneyer responsible for production and the mint-place at which he was based. It was only in the tenth and eleventh centuries that all three of these elements became standard, however; in earlier times only the name of the ruler and/or the moneyer was generally used, and before the mid-eighth century any meaningful inscription was unusual. Details of these elements of the inscriptions (ruler, mint and moneyer) are arranged in the Indexes on pp. 873–901. Other words, mostly religious formulations, also occur from time to time.

Names were generally of non-Latinate origin (Old English together with some of Old Norse, continental Germanic and Irish derivation), while titles and other words were in Latin, occasionally Old English or very rarely Old Norse (2605). The Greek letters alpha and omega and of course runes were the major non-Roman elements of numismatic epigraphy; the Off a dinar constitutes an unusual attempt to reproduce Arabic lettering in England, but the placement of OFFA REX upside down relative to the Arabic suggests its makers did not understand the inscriptions (Chick 1a – though some other coins placed parts of Latin inscriptions upside down). In addition, a large number of early medieval coins carry pseudo-legends replicating the general appearance but not the meaning of an inscription. The use of these symbols demonstrates the importance that attached to writing as part of the design of a respectable coin, even when the maker was apparently illiterate, but these pseudo-legends are not considered here; the focus below is on meaningful inscriptions.

Rulers’ names and titles

Rulers’ names and titles are traditionally used to define the obverse of a coin, although there are some cases (such as the issues of Viking Northumbria: see Chapter 11, section (i), pp. 292–301) where the die carrying the ruler's name apparently occupied the reverse (i.e. upper) position in technical terms, or where rulers’ names occupy both faces.