2021-05-20 Thu

Ethelberht was an eighth-century saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Ethelberht's parents were Ethelred I of East Anglia and Leofrana of Mercia.

Little is known of his reign, which may have begun in 779, according to later sources, and very few of the coins he issued have been discovered. It is known from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that he was killed on the orders of Offa of Mercia in 794.

Offa stopped Ethelberht from minting his own coins, of which only four examples have ever been found. One of these, a 'light' penny, said to have been discovered in 1908 at Tivoli, near Rome, is similar in type to the coinage of Offa. On one side is the word REX, with an image of Romulus and Remus suckling a wolf: the obverse names the king and his moneyer, Lul, who also struck coins for Offa and Coenwulf of Mercia.

According to the numismatist Marion Archibald, the issuing of "flattering" coins of this type, with the intention to win friends in Rome, probably indicated that as a sub-king, Ethelberht was assuming "a greater degree of independence than (Offa) was prepared to tolerate".

In 2014, metal-detectorist Darrin Simpson found a coin minted by Ethelbert in a Sussex field. Such coins, struck as a sign of independence, may have led to Ethelbert's death. Christopher Webb, head of coins at auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb, said, "This new discovery is an important and unexpected addition to the numismatic history of 8th Century England". It sold at auction on 11 June 2014 for 78,000 pound.

Image Source: Wikipedia.org