THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

UNITED KINGDOM
down to the Reformation, and was extended to some
of the episcopal Sees. Pieces of the ordinary regal
type frequently present themselves with the initials or
monogram of the personage under whose immediate
authority they were struck. Some of the Durham
pennies of Wolsey bear T. W. and a cardinal's hat,
which bespeaks them not prior to 1516.
The sole monarchs of England are usually reckoned
as commencing with Egbert (800-837) ; but Edgar
(959-975) was the first who can be said to have actually
reigned over the whole country ; and we know that the
royal authority in the time of Alfred (872-901) was
constantly disputed and infringed, and that down to
the period of the Norman settlement in 1066 there was
no stability in the government, owing in great measure
to successive invasions and revolts. The style and
fabric of the silver penny under Egbert and his suc-
cessors, however, gradually improved ;
those of Alfred,
of numerous types, including the London one with the
portrait, are peculiarly interesting to us from the per-
sonal character of the issuer ; and the profuse volume
of currency belonging to the long reigns of Canute and
Edward the Confessor, amounting to hundreds of varie-
ties, seems to establish the beneficial growth of foreign
influence and an increasing demand for specie. It was
precisely a juncture when the coinage of France had de-
generated from the later Carolingian standard, and under
the Capetian dynasty exhibited debased types. But
the Northern nations had improved their money, and it
was from the Danish conquerors that England acquired
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