Numismatics is the study of coinage. This blog concentrates on the role numismatic evidence can play in illuminating the history of East Anglia, from the earliest coins minted in Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire by the Iceni (beginning c. 50BC) to the trade tokens issued by local traders in the 17th and 18th centuries. In between there is information here on the coinage of the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia (which issued its first coins in around 650 and continued, interrupted by Mercian occupation, until the death of King Edmund in 869) and the mediaeval mint of Bury St. Edmunds, which operated from the mid-11th to the beginning of the 14th century.
Topics I have covered so far include coins held by the Fitzwilliam Museum, John Creighton’s theories about Iron Age coinage, the coinage of the Iceni, including some of the latest theories and an analysis of coins found near Bury St. Edmunds. I have also written about early East Anglian sceattas, the Coenwulf Mancus’ visit to Bedford, Edward the Confessor’s Bury coinage and the coinage of Edmund of East Anglia, as well as Bury’s 17th century trade tokens.
