Sceattas, the primary circulating coinage in Britain…

Sceattas, the primary circulating coinage in Britain at the start of the eighth century, were small silver pennies, which often did not bear the name of either the moneyer or the king for whom they were produced.

To contemporaries these were probably known as pennies, and are the coins referred to in the laws of Ine of Wessex.

This light coinage (in contrast to the heavier coins minted later in Offa's reign) can probably be dated to the late 760s and early 770s.

A second, medium-weight coinage can be identified before the early 790s.

These new medium-weight coins are heavier, broader and thinner than the pennies they replaced and had been prompted by the contemporary Carolingian currency reforms.

The new pennies almost invariably carry both Offa's name and the name of the moneyer from whose mint the coins came.

The reform in the coinage appears to have extended beyond Offa's own mints: the kings of East Anglia, Kent and Wessex all produce coins of the new heavier weight in this period.

Some coins from Offa's reign bear the names of the archbishops of Canterbury, Jaenberht and, after 792, Æthelheard.

Jaenberht's coins all belong to the light coinage, rather than the later medium coinage.

There is also evidence that coins were issued by Eadberht, who was bishop of London in the 780s and possibly before.

Offa's dispute with Jaenberht may have led him to allow Eadberht coining rights, which may then have been revoked when the see of Lichfield was elevated to an archbishopric.

The medium-weight coins often carry designs of high artistic quality, exceeding that of the contemporary Frankish currency.