Norman Coinage

 

The coins of the Norman period (1066-1154) are often highly prized finds by metal detectorists, and some people may go their entire detecting career without ever finding even a fragment of a Norman coin. However, the limited numbers and types of these coins means they aren't the hardest of all the hammered coins to identify. This is because each type (up until Stephen that is) has a slightly different obverse and reverse.

A copy of Coins of England and the United Kingdom is a very useful book in helping with identifying your Norman coin.

 

A very good website already exists discussing in depth the coins from William I to Stephen and the Anarchy. The types listed can easily be referenced with Spink.


 

The coins of William I – Henry I can be found here:



http://www.symbolicmessengers.com/Norman_Coins_of_England.htm

 

The coins of Stephen and the Anarchy can be found here:



http://www.symbolicmessengers.com/Coins_of_the_Anarchy.htm

 

 

The Early Medieval Corpus is also a great database to help you find similar examples of your coin.



INTERNET SEARCHES FOR NORMAN COINS


Some useful searches for you in relation to Norman pennies, click the links, searches will open in a new window


1/. The Portable Antiquities Scheme Database


You can choose various options to search the database, if you know the ruler you will narrow your options down considerably

















1/. Wikipedia Sceats


2/. Sceats at Finds.org.uk


3/. Fantastic Resource for all things Metal Detecting, the MDF Metal Detecting Forum


The instructions For the Fitzwilliam are as follows, add the following fields as can be seen


The search fields give you many options to refine your search

Add Norman England (1066-1154) to the search field in the Kingdom section

You can then add other options if you wish such as ‘Ruler’ and ‘Mint’ in known

Click the “see images” at the bottom of the form

Change the drop down for “Include Coins From” to Both the EMC and SCBI


and then “Submit”


Note if too many hits are returned, you will not see the images, but as you get better you will limit the returned hits by adding content to the “Search any field in the database options”


 
 
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