Reverses with Crosses, Standards/Saltires, and Porcupines

Originally from Constantinople, ‘cross’ type reverses began to be used on the reverses of the Merovingian ‘National’ gold coinage (c.570/80–670), and the selection found in the Sutton Hoo hoard gives a good impression of their variety. The majority of Anglo-Saxon gold coins (c.580–675) also have crosses on their reverses, but the treatment is often quite original. Apart from the practicality of conforming to a recognized iconography in the commercial sphere, crosses served as signifiers of adherence to Christianity and also as political statements. In the Secondary silver coinage crosses as reverses are fewer, the religious message being conveyed by an ambitious figural iconography of complex meaning. The role of Bishop Liudhard, Queen Bertha’s chaplain, in persuading King Æthelberht of Kent to accept St Augustine’s mission and Christianity is not discussed by Bede, but a find from the churchyard of St Martin’s at Canterbury, now firmly associated with him, gives an insight into his position as a ‘broker’ for Christianity, romanitas, coinage, and literacy (Fig. 5.1). Liudhard’s ‘medalet’, a looped pendant, was intended for presentation, yet it is coin-like, the first such object manufactured in England at a time when there was no independent currency. On the obverse it conforms to the norm of classical coinage, but, by adopting a patriarchal cross on the reverse, it breaks with the contemporary numismatic tradition of portraying a ‘Victory’. The importance of this cross, its association with the True Cross and its relics sent to Poitiers in 569, and its allusions, have been persuasively argued by Werner, who also postulates the existence of such an altar-cross at Canterbury. However, in spite of the rich symbolism and elegance, neither Liudhard’s cross, nor the Merovingian-inspired ‘Cross-on-Steps’, decorated with taushaped pendilia and topped by a star (Fig. 5.2a), were imitated among the immediately subsequent coinage. It is simpler crosses-on steps that feature on the reverses of ‘benutigo’ coins, and Type BX. Only Anglo-Saxon gold solidi of the seventh and the eighth centuries, perhaps prestige medallic gifts, rather than currency ‘coins’, are modelled on seventh-century Byzantine ‘Cross potent-on- Steps’ (Fig. 5.2b).