The Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) has acquired an incredibly rare Anglo-Saxon silver penny inscribed with the first known use of the city name “Exeter.” There are only three examples of this coin known to exist, and the other two are in the British Museum, so this is the only coin marking the beginning of the modern city of Exeter to return home to Exeter.
The penny was minted in Exeter around 895-899, shortly after King Alfred the Great defeated the Danes of Northumbria and East Anglia who were besieging Exeter.
On one side it proclaims AELFRED REX SAXONUM (Alfred King of the Saxons) and on the other EXA (Exeter). It marks the point where Alfred identified Exeter, alongside Winchester, as the headquarters from which to strengthen his rule as king.
Alfred’s confidence in Exeter was a turning point in the city’s fortunes after being virtually abandoned since Roman times. The city walls were repaired and new street grid, different from the Roman one, was laid out. The city evidently grew rapidly. By the year 1000 it was about the sixth most prosperous city in Britain.
This example and one of the examples in the British Museum were found in the Cuerdale Viking Silver Hoard near Preston, Lancashire, in 1840. The Cuerdale Hoard is the largest Viking silver hoard ever discovered in Britain, containing more than 8,600 objects including jewelry, ingots, hacksilver and of course, coins. Most of the coins were from the Danelaw kingdoms in eastern England, but a number of coins were from the Kingdom of Wessex, including the two Exeter pennies. (The third example was found in 1958 at Morley St Peter, Norfolk, in a hoard of pennies.)
The newly-acquired penny has been owned by private numismatists since 1844. It was last sold in 1989 when it was bought by Utica podiatrist and avid coin collector Dr. Irving Schneider. The Schneider collection was sold at auction in Zurich in May, and RAMM was able to bid for it successfully thanks to funds donated by the museum’s supporters and charitable trusts.
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