Sceat Series S, Type 47

Series S sceattas were struck somewhere in the Mercian orbit, though no single mint has been confirmed — find distributions from metal-detector recoveries over the past four decades suggest East Anglia or the East Midlands as the most probable production zone. Type 47 sits within a broader family distinguished by progressive degeneration of its inherited motifs across die generations, making later dies in the sequence almost unrecognizable from the prototype. Coin finds from riverine and market-site contexts dominate the record, consistent with the toll-point and emporium economy that characterized Mercian commercial expansion under Æthelbald.