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Anglo-Saxon & Viking A.D. - Currency Numismatics,

Silver Penny

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Sliver Penny

Coenwulf 796-821 AD (Mercia)

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1. COENWULF [796-821] silver penny
    Portrait type - Group 11
    CANTERBURY mint - Moneyer - DUDA
    obv. +COENVVLF REX m
    rev. +DVDA MONETA
    1.32g
    ref. Naismith C40g [this coin - pl.23], North 350, Spink 915
2. COENWULF [796-821] silver penny
    Tribrach type
    CANTERBURY mint - Moneyer - ETHELMOD
    obv. +COENVVLF REX    rev. +EDELMOD, around tribrach moline of 2 lines
    1.25g
3. COENWULF [796-821] silver penny
    Tribrach type
    CANTERBURY mint - Moneyer - DUDA
    obv. +COENVVLF R.EX     rev. DV / D. / A
    1.27g
4. COENWULF [796-821] silver penny
    Tribrach type
    CANTERBURY mint - Moneyer - LUDOMAN
    obv. +COENVVLF REX    rev. LVD / OM / AN
    1.15g
    ref. Naismith L13, North 342, Spink 914
    Found - Norfolk 2013
    Rare moneyer - only 3 recorded in Naismith and this is probably the best lighter than photo
    and slightly porous surface in places   VERY RARE
5. COENWULF [796-821] silver penny
    EAST ANGLIA mint - Moneyer - WODEL
    Portrait type
    obv. COENVVLF REX, crude bust    rev. PO d E L, in angles of cross
    1.31g
    ref. Naismith E13.3m [this coin],North 370, BMC 91, Spink 919-20
    Found in Wilstead, Bedfordshire, Dec. 2005   Recorded - EMC 2006.0055
   chipped lower edge and slightly wavy flan   EXTREMELY RARE
6. Coenwulf. 796-821. AR Penny (1.32 g, 12h). Group IV, Pincer Cross type. Canterbury
    mint; Diormod, moneyer. Struck circa 815-821. + COENVVLF REX m, diademed bust
    right / + DIORmOD mONET? around pincer cross. Blunt, Coinage 44e (this coin,
    illustrated); SCBI 20 (Mack), 583; BMC 68; North 347; SCBC 916. Good VF, attractively
    toned. Good metal. Very rare.

1. Estimated value: £ 2,250

Coenwulf (also spelled Cenwulf, Kenulf, or Kenwulph) was King of Mercia from December 796 until his death in 821. He was a descendant of a brother of King Penda, who had ruled Mercia in the middle of the 7th century. He succeeded Ecgfrith, the son of Offa; Ecgfrith only reigned for five months, and Coenwulf ascended to the throne in the same year that Offa died. In the early years of Coenwulf's reign he had to deal with a revolt in Kent, which had been under Offa's control. Eadberht Præn returned from exile in Francia to claim the Kentish throne, and Coenwulf was forced to wait for papal support before he could intervene. When Pope Leo agreed to anathematize Eadberht, Coenwulf invaded and retook the kingdom; Eadberht was taken prisoner, was blinded, and had his hands cut off. Coenwulf also appears to have lost control of the kingdom of East Anglia during the early part of his reign, as an independent coinage appears under King Eadwald. Coenwulf's coinage reappears in 805, indicating that the kingdom was again under Mercian control. Several campaigns of Coenwulf's against the Welsh are recorded, but only one conflict with Northumbria, in 801, though it is likely that Coenwulf continued to support the opponents of the Northumbrian king Eardwulf.

Coenwulf came into conflict with Archbishop Wulfred of Canterbury over the issue of whether laypeople could control religious houses such as monasteries. The breakdown in the relationship between the two eventually reached the point where the archbishop was unable to exercise his duties for at least four years. A partial resolution was reached in 822 with Coenwulf's successor, King Ceolwulf, but it was not until about 826 that a final settlement was reached between Wulfred and Coenwulf's daughter, Cwoenthryth, who had been the main beneficiary of Coenwulf's grants of religious property.

He was succeeded by his brother, Ceolwulf; a post-Conquest legend claims that his son Cynehelm was murdered to gain the succession. Within two years Ceolwulf had been deposed, and the kingship passed permanently out of Coenwulf's family. Coenwulf was the last king of Mercia to exercise substantial dominance over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Within a decade of his death, the rise of Wessex had begun under King Egbert, and Mercia never recovered its former position of power