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Styca - Aethelred II 1st reign
| Issuer | Kingdom of Northumbria |
|---|---|
| Year | 841-844 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Irregular hammered flan with a central field bearing the royal name EDILRED REX arranged in two or more lines, the lettering executed in the angular, somewhat crude epigraphic style characteristic of late Northumbrian stycas. A small cross pattée or cross symbol appears prominently in the upper portion of the field, serving as a devotional device. The legend, reading 'King Aethelred', is distributed across the field rather than as a continuous peripheral inscription, reflecting the degenerate die-cutting conventions of mid-ninth-century York. The surface displays a pronounced patina of green and grey corrosion typical of the debased copper alloy used in this series. |
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| Obverse lettering | EDILRED REX (Translation: King Aethelred.) |
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| Additional information |
Aethelred II's first reign ended when he was driven out by a nobleman named Redwulf, who seized the Northumbrian throne in 844 and issued his own stycas before being killed by Viking raiders the same year. The styca series as a whole had been debasing steadily throughout the ninth century — earlier issues contain measurable silver, but by Aethelred's time the alloy had collapsed almost entirely to copper and lead, a slide that mirrors Northumbria's shrinking political coherence in the face of Scandinavian pressure.