Lecture - 'Quite devoid of sense'

2:00pm Friday 20th January, York Coin Fair: 'Quite devoid of sense'?

Tony Abramson will show that far from being 'quite devoid of sense', as one of our most eminent numismatists thought, the York gold shilling is at the forefront of English coinage. Our new understanding of the inscriptions and iconography challenge the chronology of early Anglo-Saxon coinage, dating the York shilling to the time of the ship burial at Sutton Hoo and casting new light on the history of Northumbria, particularly its balance of power. The distribution of finds evidences evangelical activity in the Conversion Period and the literacy of the inscriptions distinguishes Northumbrian coinage from southern emissions.