Eanred (810-841), Cuthheard -

Northumbria, Eanred (810-841), Sceat, Tertiary phase, Cuthheard, +EANRED R around cross pattée, rev. +CVDHARD around cross, central motif (1/1), 1.02g, 0° (SL 86.5-10 plate coin; cf. SCBI 69, 918; North 186; Spink 860).

Images and selected text reproduced by kind permission of Spink and Son Ltd, London, auction 21050, The Tony Abramson Collection of Dark Age Coinage - Part II - Northumbria, March 18th 2021, lot #436. Provenance: T Durston, March 2019 ~ Found by R Spour near Driffield (East Yorkshire).

The reign of Eanred (c. 808-840), son of Eardwulf, may have started after Ælfwald II or a temporarily restored Eardwulf. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in 829, Ecgberht of Wessex ‘conquered Mercia and all that was south of the Humber’, so becoming the eighth bretwalda. Eanred ‘offered him submission and peace’ at Dore, near Sheffield. During the tenure of Eanbald II, i.e. by 835, Eanred initiated what may be deemed to be a continuation of the early-penny coinage, albeit in poor silver, issued by named moneyers referred to by Stewart (1957) as ‘Group A’.