A silver penny of Edward the Elder found in Thurcaston, Leicestershire
A Horizontal type (HC1) silver penny of Edward the Elder (874-924), son of Alfred the Great, and minted by a moneyer called Beornwald. This coin was part of a hoard of twelve coins found at Thurcaston between 1992 and 2000. The coins are Anglo-Saxon, Arabic and Viking issues, and show the diverse and wide-ranging contacts between societies at this time. The hoard was probably deposited c.923-925, approximately five years after Leicester had been retaken by Mercia (c.918). They indicate that a bullion economy was still operating in the Danelaw as late as the 920s. This suggests that the reconquest did not immediately manage to institute Anglo-Saxon practices such as a monetary economy.