Styca - Eanred

Eanred's reign — the longest of any Northumbrian king at roughly four decades — saw the styca coinage undergo a quiet but significant debasement. What began as a base silver issue progressively shed its silver content until pieces like this one are effectively copper throughout. The transition was gradual enough that contemporaries may have barely registered it, but it marks the point at which Northumbrian coinage effectively abandoned any pretense of intrinsic value.

The moneyers active under Eanred are unusually well documented for the period through hoard evidence, particularly the 1981 Hexham find.