The Britons began making coins from about 100BC, in imitation of Roman practice. They were made mainly in the West Country or the Thames Valley. This practice was stopped by the Romans when Britain became part of the Empire, and only imported Roman coinage was allowed. Roman coins were not minted again in Britain until 155AD, but once begun, this process continued until the late 300’s, when the Roman Empire began to disintegrate.
In the early Anglo-Saxon period, where coins were used at all, they were gold pieces from the continent – the ‘solidus’ weighing a hefty 4 grams, or another coin one third of its value, called the ‘tremissis’. Because of their high value, they were fairly useless for everyday transactions and were in any case prized more as jewellery or as gifts than as currency.
Two sides of an early English gold coin
It was more than two centuries later, around the 620’s, before the Anglo-Saxons began minting gold coins of their own, called ‘thrymsas’, which echoed the Latin ‘tremissis’. These were probably the ancestors of ‘shillings’. The designs were often imitations of Roman ones, with lettering sometimes malformed or not even making sense!
Both sides of an early English silver coin
Towards the end of the 600’s, the gold currency disappeared, to be replaced by a coinage of pure silver. The new coins were called ‘sceattas’, but it wasn’t until the 760’s that a new ‘penny’ coinage began, first in Mercia, then in Kent, with twelve to a shilling.
As the days grow longer, the sun rises a little to the left of the place it rose the day before. Eventually, it rises at the same spot on the horizon for several days in a row. This is called the summer solstice. Then it rises a little to the right each day for about 180 days, and the days grow shorter. When the sun rises at the same point again a few times, and the days are at their shortest, this is called the winter solstice. Each complete cycle takes about 365 days, and this is defined as a YEAR, or ‘gear’ in old English.
The place where the sun rises mid-way between the two extremes is defined as EAST. On that day, called the equinox, there’s an equal amount of light and darkness. The place on the horizon directly opposite this special sun-rise is where the sun sets the same day. This is defined as WEST. At right-angles to a line between EAST and WEST are NORTH and SOUTH.
Moon-rises follow a more complicated pattern, but the moon changes its shape slightly each day until disappears completely. A ‘new moon’ appears every 29 days or so, and this period is called a month, or ‘monaþ’ in Old English. There are twelve moon-months to each sun-year, with a few days left over. Different civilizations have worked out different ways to make the months fit into a year – but it’s impossible! The pagan English system was based on 12 moon-months, with an extra month inserted every three years or so. The Roman system, which we still use today, started off the same way, but was constantly modified until no single month actually matched the phases of the moon.
The moon
By the middle to later Anglo-Saxon period, the division of the year into four seasons had become traditional, with13 weeks to each season*. Spring began at the start of February, summer at the beginning of May, autumn in August and winter at the beginning of November. Anglo-Saxon people would have taken much more of an interest in the behaviour of the sun and moon than we do, because that was how they measured out the year**.
