Edmund The Martyr - Memorial Coinage

Memorial Coinage

Edmund's body was buried in a wooden chapel near to where he was killed, but was later transferred to Beadoriceworth, where in 925 Athelstan founded a community devoted to the new cult. Thirty years after Edmund's death, he was venerated by the Vikings of East Anglia, who produced a coinage to commemorate him. The coinage was minted from around 895 to 915 (close to the time when East Anglia was conquered by Edward the Elder of Wessex) and was based on the design of coins produced during Edmund's reign. All the pennies and (more rarely) half-pennies that were produced read SCE EADMVND REX—'O St Edmund the king!'. Some of them have a legend that provides evidence that the Vikings experimented with their initial design.

The St. Edmund memorial coins were minted in great quantities by a group of more than 70 moneyers, many of whom appear to have originated from the continent: over 1800 individual specimens were found when the great Cuerdale Hoard was discovered in 1840. The coins would have been widely used within the Danelaw and many single items have mainly been found in the east of England, but the exact locations of the mints where they were made are not known with certainty: scholars have assumed that they were made in East Anglia.

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