New Currency? Sceat

Just going through the catalogue and noticed that this coin did not have a currency: Sceat - Beonna - Kingdom of East Anglia – Numista

does it need a currency? can people more knowledgeable than me in this area help?

This is what I found on wiki

Sceat - Wikipedia

Wiki basically says that they are Pennies anyway. Maybe we should add Pound currency and Penny denomination? It would help searchability.

Numismatists have used the term sceat for centuries to refer to silver coins pre-dating the adoption of the Carolingian denarius, which is referred to as a penny in modern English. However, it's highly likely the term pæning, and other early forms, pre-date Charlemagne and were used contemporaneously for coins today known as sceattas. What is certain is that the pound came from the Frankish Empire. If we want to introduce a currency for the sceattas, we could use that name with the single denomination of penny. In that way, we'd be using the numismatic term as a description of these early pennies in a way not dissimilar to how the term sterling is used today.

I am embarassed to say that my wife gave me a copy of Naismith's new book that discusses early medieval coinages like the sceats, but I have misplaced it.

I think the sceat was not tied to a larger unit like the pound (even if it was a precursor of pennies that were).

If I remember that correctly, then maybe it deserves to be its own currency?  

tdziemia

I am embarassed to say that my wife gave me a copy of Naismith's new book that discusses early medieval coinages like the sceats, but I have misplaced it.

 

I think the sceat was not tied to a larger unit like the pound (even if it was a precursor of pennies that were).

If I remember that correctly, then maybe it deserves to be its own currency?  

Yes, a separate currency would be best. We just need a name that everyone can recognise.

Looking more broadly, we have several different sections covering English coinage. We start with “Early Anglo-Saxon” which has the thrymsas (in their own currency) and some sceattas (unspecified currency). We then have the various Anglo-Saxon and Viking kingdoms with pound currencies for the pennies, a few sceattas with unspecified currency and the Northumbrian stycas (also unspecified currency). We also have the bishops of London and the archbishops of Cantebury and York (pennies for London and Cantebury, sceattas and stycas for York).

Since most of the thrymsas and sceattas aren't assigned to a kingdom, we probably need to retain “Early Anglo-Saxon” and just add the currency for the sceat-type pennies (if that's what we're going to call them). We can also add this currency to those kingdoms where coins can be attributed and we need the styca for Northumbria and the Archbishopric of York.

A bit more digging reveals that the coin Numismatics call a “thrymsa” was almost certainly known as a scilling when in use, so we could rename them to “shilling” within a currency still called “Thrymsas”.

Yes, Naismith (Making Money in the Early Middle Ages, p. 253-258) also calls them shillings, imitating the weight of Merovingian and Iberian tremisses (if not the purity).  He hypothesizes that they were not struck as part of an organized and utilitarian currency system, but …

"…coins probably circulated alongside other socailly charged prestige goods that changed hands as gifts or in other ritualized contexts.  This is the world suggested by the gold and silver of Sutton Hoo, Prittlewell and the Staffordshire hoard."

And … “In the early to mid-seventh century, the earliest trading centers in England were only just starting to coalesce at Ipswich, London and elsewhere, and they did not yet present a likely setting for the production of gold coins on a large scale.  Minting in the orbit of elite patrons is much more plausible.” 

i.e. coinage with little to no connection to ruling authorities, weight and fineness standards, etc.

He puts the demise of these gold shillings (the point at which the gold content drops to nearly zero) around 660, at which point the sceats/sceattas take off.  So, yes, it sounds like there were sequential currency systems based on gold thrymsas/shillings followed by silver sceats/pennies.