Penny - Cnut Short Cross type

The Short Cross type was introduced around 1029 as part of Cnut's systematic renovation of the English coinage, a program that replaced dies across the country on a roughly six-year cycle — a bureaucratic discipline inherited from Æthelred II and arguably the most sophisticated mint administration in contemporary Europe. England's network of some seventy active mints during this period means Short Cross pennies survive from an extraordinary range of provincial centers, each identifiable by moneyer name.

Cnut died in 1035 at Shaftesbury, leaving the succession contested between Harold Harefoot and Harthacnut. Short Cross dies remained in use into that interregnum.