British Coins

Kings of East Anglia, Eadmund (c. 855-869/70), Penny, Sigered, alpha between pellets, contraction bar above, eadmvnd rex a, rev. cross, pellets in angles, sigered mone, 1.26g/5h (BNJ 52, pp. 78-9; BMC 79; N 456; S 954). Extremely fine, lightly toned, rare £1,200-1,500

The readings on this coin are not given in Pagan’s article on the coinage (BNJ 1982, pp.41-83).

We know little about Edmund, King of East Anglia, but more than about some of his predecessors who are quite unknown to history other than through their coinage. He is thought to have been born c. 841 and succeeded Æthelweard on the throne of East Anglia c. 855. His death at the hands of the invading Danish army, probably in November 869, turned him into a christian martyr and saint. Versions of his martyrdom vary; he was tied to a tree and shot to death by arrows like St Sebastian or decapitated by the invaders who threw his head into a nearby wood where it was guarded by a grey wolf until it could be reclaimed by his loyal followers. Whatever the truth, in little over a generation he had been beatified and his memory venerated on the St Edmund coinage, found in quantity in the Cuerdale hoard and thus dated before c. 905