Authority and minting I: the king
Rory Naismith
‘A special, but very solid, demonstration of the English state is coinage.’ Thus wrote James Campbell, one several historians in recent times who have quite rightly emphasized remarkable unity and sophistication late Anglo-Saxon monetary system. It stands stark contrast to currency Carolingian early Capetian France, or that Ottonian Salian Germany, where both cases power over minting had passed into hands a plethora secular ecclesiastical magnates. Almost every mint its own distinct coinage. In whole kingdom England, there was only one. As Campbell observed, this history has been used as benchmark royal authority more general sense. The frequent reforms nation-wide standardization instituted by Edgar towards end his reign brought being ‘gold standard’ medieval coinages, at same time other – though often less clearly traceable developments government kingly representation were building momentum.
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