Next club meeting Monday 4^th July 2005.

• The speaker will be David Symons talking on ' Of Celts and Cartwheels '

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church. Entrance off Abbey Square.

Meeting commences at 7.00pm.

The June meeting was devoted to the AGM and the annual display competition for the Michael Broome memorial trophy. Eighteen members attended.

A brief summary of the AGM is as follows:

• Apologies - Tim, John, Ken, Rob, Michael, Ron and John.
• Minutes of 2003 AGM read out and approved by Brian, seconded Gavin.
• Chairman's report delivered - a good year for the club with membership rising to 42 an increase of 4 over last year. Average attendance at club meetings is well over 20 and often nearer 25. All seven scheduled speakers attended and the social events, namely the visit to Mint, the 40th anniversary dinner and the Skittles evening, were judged to be a resounding success by all those who attended. The chairman considered our club to be one of the most vibrant coin clubs in the UK. However, he did make a plea for others to come forward and serve on the committee next year. With some committee members having to retire it would be a pity for the club to fold because of no club officers.
• Treasurer's report delivered - the club finances remain in good order. Despite considerable expenditure over the year (room hire up to £34.8 per evening- still very good value, subsidies for events, speakers expenses) this was partly set off by new member subscriptions, increased auction revenue and members contributions to events. Once again the use of email was suggested to reduce costs - the secretary will compile a list of persons with email access. Of course the next secretary may not have email - point to consider next year. We have to find another bank as the Reading branch is closing. Given that last years survey voiced an opinion to use some of our cash reserves we the committee wish to hear your views as to what is worthy of expenditure. By way of example we will be purchasing a current Kraus 1800- 1900.
• Next years meeting programme was formally issued.
• Subscriptions - Given the Treasurer's report the Committee recommended that subscriptions remain at current rates, namely £14 + optional £2 for tea/coffee.
• Committee - Persons elected unopposed were David, Henry, Michael, Frank and Gavin. Tim is prepared to assist in the creation of the 2006/7 speaker programme and Michael with some secretarial duties.
• Auditor - Neil agreed (in absentia) to continue as the club auditor
• Officers - The following were elected: President - John, Vice Presidents - Maurice
• It is the Committee's intention to reduce the library of those items that are neither read nor classed as standard references.

Annual Display Competition.

The annual display competition attracted four entries. Once again the standard of entries was very good.

40th Year Events

This Month brings to a close our 40^th year. In the last of a series of articles from yesteryear it is fitting that the final article is about Reading. The article enclosed entitled 'The Coinage of Reading' was discovered amongst the papers of the late Michael Broome.

The month of June is traditionally the time of the AGM.

THE COINAGE OF READING

Pre-conquest

By M. R. Broome, F.R.N.S.

When early in the fifth century the Romans withdrew their armies and administration from the province of Britannia, the site of the town of Reading contained no more than a few outlying settlements whose inhabitants would have looked to Silchester as their administrative centre. The short-lived native coinage of the Atrebates had been suppressed soon after the occupation some 400 years before, and the current money was Roman and supplied from mints all over the Roman Empire.

As Roman influence waned and their complex system of supplies and taxes disintegrated, so the need for coinage diminished. The increasing pressure from Picts in the north and Germans in the East enforced self sufficiency on the farms and hamlets and by the time the Germanic settlements began to spread from Southern and Eastern England, money must have represented a very unimportant feature in most people's lives.

The reasons for the origin of the Saxon settlement that became Reading are unknown. The group that gave its name to the town, the Readingas, occupied an area some seven miles across. The name means 'the people of Reada', the Red; but whether he led his people to this area or whether he had died long before cannot be told. But within the area was an excellent and well-drained gravel site at the junction of Thames and Kennet, and on the western side the main settlement of the Readingas took root. They could have reached it by rowing up the Thames or by overland journey on the Icknield Way through the Goring gap. Very soon the new settlement replaced the abandoned Silchester as an important road junction, with the road from Southampton and Winchester crossing the Thames at Caversham and the main road from London to the West, Bath Road, crossing it at Reading.

At first, coined money would have been of little use to these Saxons and the thrymsas, the first crude coins in the country produced late in the 6th century, were of gold. But over the years Reading would have become more established and developed its economic advantages as a stopping place for travelers. It is interesting to find that the settlement seems to have moved from an area good for defence to one good for trade, from the Forbury to the road junction in the area of St. Mary's Butts. Its inhabitants would have examined with interest the new silver pence which began to circulate at the beginning of the 9th century, large thin coins rather different from the dumpy Sceats to which they had become accustomed.

By the time of Aethelred II (979 - 1016) coins were being struck at many places up and down the country. We know of coins from some 70 different mints, although Reading is not amongst them, and future discoveries may reveal even more. A coin of Aethelred II once thought to have a Reading mint name is now considered to be of Scandinavian origin. It is not until the reign of Edward the Confessor that we find good evidence of Reading's own coinage in the shape of two silver pennies with the mint name Reading. They are a Radiate Small Cross type (circa 1044-6 ) reading CORFF ON RAE ADII and a Trefoil Quadrilateral type ( circa 1046-8) reading EORFF ON READIN, and are both in the Royal Collection in Stockholm. Corff is known to have struck coins at London Mint between 1035 and 1044 and it seems likely that he was moved to Reading about the latter year.

Norman

We do not know if Reading mint survived into the reign of Harald II since the Domesday Survey of 1086 makes no mention of a mint and no coins attributable to it are known for either Harald or his first two Norman successors. This is perhaps not so surprising because Reading, although a burgh, was small and undefended whereas the mints operating under William the Conqueror were mostly in fortified towns and well under the control of his armies, e.g. Wallingford, the then County town.

The change in Reading's fortunes began when its virtues as a site for a new abbey came to the ears of King Henry 1, a monarch credited by contemporary chronicles with three virtues: wisdom, victory and wealth, and three vices: greed, cruelty and wantonness.

Henry was 53 and had been on the throne for 21 years. His first wife Mathilda was dead and his only legitimate son William had been drowned along with half the English court in November 1120 whilst returning from Normandy in the White Ship. Perhaps Henry realized the transitory nature of human existence and feared the vivid horrors of a medieval Hell thereafter, or more probably, he wished to

raise a memorial to the memory of his son. He thus decided to build a wonderful abbey church and Reading, until recently a royal villa and an easy day's journey from London, was the chosen site.

On the 18th June 1121, eight monks from the Abbey of Cluny near Macon in France, together with three or four more from the Cluniac Priory of Lewes, arrived in Reading to establish the new religious community. The main sources of income for the new work were the various lands which were transferred to the ownership of the Abbey. In the foundation charter given by Henry I at Rouen in 1125 a valuable option was given to the Abbot, namely that of controlling his own mint and one moneyer within the Abbey at Reading. This charter has only survived in the form of an early copy but its existence is confirmed by a writ from the King's Regent, the Bishop of Salisbury, dateable to the period 1123/6 which states by order of Henry I that Abbot Hugh and the monks of Reading are to have a moneyer in London named Edgar. It is tempting to connect this change of location with the trial of moneyers which took place in Winchester in December 1124 when all the moneyers of England were accused of issuing bad money. The standard of the last four, or possibly five, types of Henry I's coinage is markedly better than previous issues and it is thought that they represent the period 1125-35 giving the usual 2 1/2 to 3 years for each type.

Several of Henry I last coins (type XV) from London are known with the name AEdgar and these have been attributed to the Abbot of Reading's moneyer. They can be dated circa 1132-5 and it seems strange that if Edgar was appointed in 1125, he did not strike types XIII or XIV. These may yet turn up as most of the known type XIV coins come from a single hoard, the 1901 Canterbury find. It is of interest that coins of Stephen types I and II (1135- circa 1153) of Ipswich mint are known from AEdgar and it is possible that they are from the same man as the Henry 1 type XV of London. A single coin of type III of Ipswich (circa 1108) with moneyer AEdgar has also been noted.

Henry I died on the lst December 1135 and was buried in Reading Abbey, the funeral being an occasion of great magnificence and attended by his nephew, King Stephen. It is recorded that the King was interred before the High Altar although the Abbey Type Church itself was not dedicated until April 1164 when the ceremony was performed by Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was rumored that Henry had been buried in a silver coffin but when a search was made after the Dissolution no trace could be found.

Stephen confirmed the Abbey Charter including one moneyer in London which presumably was the status quo at the time. No name is mentioned and no London coins of AEdgar have survived. Two interesting theories have been put forward relating to this period. One is that AEdgar's position as the Abbot's moneyer was taken over by a man known as Baldewin during Henry 1's reign. Coins are known of Type XV by Baldewin and a few of these have an annulet on the obverse. It has been argued that this annulet has an ecclesiastical connotation and is a distinguishing mark between coins struck for the King and those struck for the Abbot of Reading. Baldewin is also a known London Moneyer for Stephen's Type I and II and here of course it would have been unnecessary to differentiate the Abbot's coins if his moneyer had never worked for the King.

A somewhat similar theory has been advanced for certain coins from London of Stephen's type I by the moneyers Smeawine and Liefred, which also carry annulets on the obverse. There would appear to be but a single obverse die used presumably in turn by each man. The tentative attribution of any or all of these coins to the Abbot of Reading stems from the assumption that during the period 1130-1150 it was necessary to distinguish between coins struck for the King and coins struck for the ecclesiastical authorities at the same mint. Whilst there was likely to have been some prestige in having the authority to strike coins, the chief asset in acquiring this privilege was undoubtedly the profit accruing to the issuing body. Where the profits from one mint had to be shared, there are obvious advantages in being able easily to distinguish the coinage attributable to each. As the usual basis for division was the output of one moneyer, those issues which bore the moneyer's name were instantly identifiable to those who knew the allegiance of each man and no further identifying marks would have been necessary. There is some evidence of dual control at Hereford, Chichester, Canterbury, Peterborough, Norwich, Rochester and York, but at none of these mints have any such marks been noted.

The argument for all these coins seems to be still open. It would nicely fit the known facts but is weakened by the existence of annulet coins of Bedford and Ipswich mints in the time of Stephen, neither of which is likely to have had any ecclesiastical control and by the lack of differentiating marks between royal and episcopal issues at Canterbury and York. If the coins were issued for the Abbot, none of them would have been actually struck in Reading.

The charter of Henry II (circa 1156) confirmed a moneyer at either London or Reading as did that of Richard (1189). John's charter however names Reading alone. In spite of all this documentation no Reading coin is known of either the "Tealby" cross and crosslets issue or of the "Short cross" issue which spanned all three reigns and 30 years into that of Henry Ill. Perhaps the confirmation charter of Henry III (1226) was a recognition of the status quo when it omitted all reference to either mint or moneyer.

Edwardian

It is unfortunate that the confirmation of Reading Abbey's charter from Edward I has not survived, but some evidence of the Abbot's exercise of his minting privilege during that reign is provided by the fact that Edward II's confirmation charter does not just omit reference to minting rights, it specifically excludes them. Edward I's first coinage was a continuation of the 'long cross' pence of his father, but in 1279 a new type was struck, now known as sterlings or Edward pence. The most obvious change is in the cross on the reverse which is no longer 'voided' or marked along its centre lines for easy division into halves and quarters. This traditional method of producing halfpennies and farthings was now unnecessary as round coins of these denominations were also to be struck for the first time in quantity.

The new coinage was of good style and initially was struck at London mint only. Certain rare coins of Class ID (May-December, 1279) however, are found with a very clear annulet on the king's breast and for many years now, these annulet coins have been attributed to the Abbot of Reading although without any documentary evidence. A rare penny also exists of Class XA (1302-10) and another, a mule of Class X/IXB which also has an annulet on the king's breast. Many coins of Classes V, VII and IX have pellets, a rose or a star in a similar position although apparently without any ecclesiastical significance.

It is known that the Abbey was in financial difficulties from early 1253, and Edward I took several steps to help the Abbot, oven going to the extent in 1286 of lending him the king's clerk to improve his revenue gathering. It would have been an obvious suggestion to revive the old privilege of a moneyer in London, when the recoinage began and this would have been a convenient way for Edward to help. From another point of view Reading was the only authority other than the king, with any historical claim to coins struck at London mint. It seems reasonable therefore, to attribute to Reading any small part of an issue of coins of this period which bears a differencing mark, especially, considering the arguments for earlier coins, when this mark is an annulet. Some support can also be drawn from the York pence issued in 1280-1 for the Archbishop which carry a quatrefoil on the king's breast, thus separating them from the coins of the royal mint in York which have no such mark. Accepting Edward II's charter at its face value, and no coins have appeared so far to dispute it, Reading's minting privileges must have ceased before 1307 (most probably before 1281) and not been reclaimed until well into the reign of Edward III. We now, however, come to those issues which seem indisputably to be for the Abbot and to have been struck actually within the Abbey's boundaries.

Edward Ill's confirmation charter, like that of his grandfather, has not survived but it is referred to in a writ of 8th November, 1338 as including the right to one moneyer and one die at Reading. The writ is of interest in that the charter apparently gave the Abbot the right to strike pence, halfpence and farthings but only one die to strike them with. Rather grudgingly, the Treasurer was instructed to provide three dies, "if the penny die will not suffice for halfpence and farthings as well". It was followed a few days later by an instruction to make three dies for a mint at Reading, at the Abbot's expense, but with the design and legend which the Abbot shall specify.Perhaps this helpfulness on the part of the king was due in some small measure to the loan of gold chalices and patens and a casket of pure gold for carrying relics, in the form of a little shrine, garnished with sapphires, oriental pearls, rubies and various other stones, weighing “20-lb . 9.oz. 7.dwt", which are referred to in a letter dated 4th June, 1338.

The die for pence would have been of little use to the Abbot as in 1335 the fineness of the silver to be used in halfpence and farthings, but not in pence, had been lowered from 92.5% to 83.33% pure silver and it was therefore more profitable to strike the lower denominations and, more particularly, the halfpence. Halfpennies are known of this period with the reverse legend CIVITAS LONDON or VILLA RADINGY. The Reading coins also have an escallop or heraldic shell in one quarter of the reverse which was presumably the Abbot's chosen symbol. The connecting link between the shell and Reading Abbey is the apostle St. James, whose tomb at Santiago in Spain attracted many pilgrims. From as far back as 1130 the shell seems to have been adopted as the badge of St. James and hence as the mark of a pilgrim. At its original foundation the Abbey was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to St. John the Evangelist. In 1125, however, Henry I presented it with the reputed hand of St James which his daughter Matilda had brought back from

It is interesting to note that the escallop on the halfpennies of 1338/44 is of a very early triangular form but in the subsequent issue is changed to a more circular shape.

Like all Reading coins, the early issue of halfpence are scarce but the few specimens now known have an average weight of 9.0 grains and range between 8.2 and 10.2 grains. The official weight was 10.7 grains, and it would seem likely that this was being kept to, within the limits of the period. All Reading halfpence and most London halfpence and farthings of Edward III's second coinage have a six pointed star on the obverse or reverse, or both probably to enable the authorities to quickly distinguish the baser metal from other issues of sterling silver. In January 1344, Edward III issued England's first regular gold coinage, the florin of 6/-, its half, known as the leopard and its quarter, the helm. At the same time the silver was restored to its normal fineness although compensating decreases in weight reduced halfpence from 10.7 to 9.7 grains. Pennies, which had never been debased, were reduced from their original 22.25 grains to about 20 grains, and finally to 18 grains for the new coinage in 1351. This 'florin' issue of silver bears a different bust with bushy hair and with far less of the neck and shoulders visible. Presumably the Abbots star-marked dies of the earlier issue could no longer be used and would therefore need to be exchanged for new. Both pence and halfpence of Reading are known for this period. They have the mint name VILLA RADINGY on the reverse and the escallop in one quarter of the reverse is now rounder and more shell like. Officially 9.7 grains, the surviving halfpennies range from 6.4 to 8.6 grains with an average of 7.5 grains and   seem rather scarcer than the issue of 1338 with which it is easy to confuse them. The normal obverse legend is +. EDWIRDVS REX. although rare varieties add LNG or XN. The florin coinage penny bears the king's titles more fully, as EDW R' ANGL' DNSHYB or Edward King of England and Lord of Ireland. Most specimens have the N reversed or with the bar omitted altogether. Their weight ranges from 15.1 to 18.6 grains with an average of 16.8 against a legal weight of 20 grains. It is, of course, likely that any coin weighing over 18 grains would have been melted for bullion when this weight became standard in 1351.

Edward III went on coining silver pence and halfpence until 1376, but no issues are known which can be connected with Reading. In fact the only mints operating seem to be London, Durham, York, and latterly Calais. Reading Abbey was still a popular place for the Court to meet and there, in 1359, John of Gaunt married Blanche; the daughter of Henry Plantagenet. The Black Death, however, which spread through England in 1348/9 seems to have killed 20% of the population, and this, coupled with the economic effects of the wars against the Scots and the French must have severely reduced the need to coin new money. Perhaps the Abbot's moneyers perished or possibly the privilege of minting was revoked by the king because of the 'vices and irregularities' discovered amongst the monks in the 1360s. We do not know, but the coinage of the Abbot of Reading ceases and never reappears.