Why Did an Eighth-Century Anglo

NUMISMATICS Why Did an Eighth-Century Anglo-Saxon King Mint Islamic Gold Dinars? A long-ago time when the caliphate’s currency was held in awe and dominated the then-known world’s economy

BY MISBAHUDDIN MIRZA

King Offa (d.796), the ruler of Mercia and the most powerful Anglo-Saxon king of the latter half of the eighth century, extended his supremacy over most of southern England. He is also famous for the lengthy “Offa’s Dyke,” which stretches along the kingdom’s western border to keep out the Welsh. Asser, a Welshman and Bishop of Sherborne during the 890s, described it as “a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea.”

This Christian monarch, praised by Charlemagne’s advisor Alcuin, had come into conflict with Jænberht, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Many historians believe that Offa was the most powerful Anglo-Saxon king before Alfred the Great (848/49-899). So, why did he mint golden coins that imitated Caliph al-Mansur’s (r.754-775) gold dinar?

This unique and interesting coin, now in the British Museum, was first discovered in Rome. European numismatists started discussing it during the 19th century. Adrien de Longpérier, a 19th-century French numismatist, archaeologist and curator, was the first one to describe this amazing coin in Paris, in 1841. His paper was published the same year in the society’s Numismatic Chronicle (vol. iv, pp. 232-34). European numismatists’ fascination with this coin continued throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. In the U.S., an image of it first appeared in Philip Hitti’s “The History of the Arab Peoples” (1937).

Maj. P.W.P. Carlyton-Britton, F.S.A., founder and president of the British Numismatic Society, published a notable paper on it in 1908, entitled “The Gold Mancus of Offa, King of Mercia,” in the British Numismatic Journal (vol. 5, 1908, pp. 55-72). The word mancus is derived from the Arabic manqus, which signifies a coin made of gold, silver or copper.

Compare this 157 hijri Abbasid gold

Abbasid al-Mansur Gold Dinar from the author’s collection. Inscription translation: There is no god but Allah alone He has no partner In the name of Allah this dinar was struck in Madinat al-Salam in the year 157 Hijri. This unique coin carries the inscription offa rex, showing that it was made for Offa, king of Mercia (reigned 757–796). The design is directly copied from a dinar coin of Offa’s contemporary, the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (ah 136–58/ad 754–775). It is closely enough copied to identify not only the ruler but also the date of the coin from which this design was copied, which was issued in ah 157 (ad 773–74). However, it is clear that the die-cutter did not read Arabic, as minor errors have been introduced into the Arabic inscription, which is upside down in relation to Offa’s name and title.

dinar of Caliph al-Mansur (from the author’s collection) with a photo of the Offa Gold Mancus, which is an exact replica of the former coin with the addition of “Offa Rex’’ (Offa King) on the reverse. The slight spelling mistakes are, of course, understandable, because the Anglo-Saxon die-maker didn’t know Arabic.

Carlyton-Britton provides various opinions as to why Offa might have issued this coin, before agreeing with Longpérier’s original opinion – that these dinars were minted in order to pay Rome the promised tribute. He quotes D.H. Haigh’s “Notes on the Old English Coinage,” Numismatic Chronicle, N.S. (vol. ix, p. 180): “I cannot think that the gold dinar with the name Offa was ever meant for circulation in England; nor that a coinage such as this could have been devised for the purpose of payment of the tribute promised to Rome. It could only have been intended for the purposes of commerce with Spain, Africa, or the East; or for the use of pilgrims to the Holy Land. The latter I think is more probable; and Rome, where it was found, was in the route of all pilgrims.”

During his conflict with Jænberht, Offa persuaded Pope Adrian I to split the archdiocese of Canterbury in two, thereby creating the new archdiocese of Lichfield. This reduction in Canterbury’s power could have been motivated by the king’s desire to have an archbishop consecrate his son Ecgfrith as king. Carlyton-Britton refers to the charter of 788, signed by both Offa and Ecgfrith, which contains a direct reference to Offa’s vow to the pope through the legates George, bishop of Ostia, and Theophylact, bishop of Todi — the latter individual was one of the most famous Byzantine biblical scholars and exegetes — to send 365 mancuses annually to the pope, or to the church of St. Peter, as alms for the poor. This tribute is called the romfeoh (Peter’s Pence).

A slight digression here. In July 1944, delegates from 44 countries met in Bretton Woods, N.H., to create a new monetary system, one that would peg their currencies to the American dollar. In turn, this was fixed to gold at the-then existing parity of $35/ounce. This was an acknowledgement of the dollar’s tremendous economic power. Although Richard Nixon disconnected the dollar from its gold backing

BY THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY, THE ISLAMIC DINAR’S POWER THROUGHOUT THE THENKNOWN WORLD WAS ANALOGOUS TO THAT OF THE AMERICAN DOLLAR OF TODAY.

in 1971, the world continues to be so in awe of the country’s economic strength that even today the dollar remains the most actively traded currency on Forex. By the beginning of the eighth century, the Islamic dinar’s power throughout the then-known world was analogous to that of the American dollar of today.

Back to the eighth century. CarlytonBritton uses the map presented above, which shows the coinages of various nations at that time, to argue that “At this period the only sovereign states which could have sent Peter’s Pence were apparently England, Francia, the Kingdom of Italy under Charlemagne, the Duchy of Beneventum, also under Charlemagne, and the Eastern Empire. The two first were normally only silver striking countries, the three last issuers of both gold and silver.” The map “discloses at a glance the circumstance that Offa, in regard to coined gold money, had practically only the Arabic dinars and the solidi of the Eastern Empire to make choice from, and he appears to have preferred the former.”

Regarding the Arabic inscriptions, Carlyton-Britton states: “It seems to us to be unlikely that either the Pope, or so powerful and enlightened a king as Offa of Mercia was, would be ignorant of the circumstance that the characters on a gold mancus, or dinar, were Arabic.”

As we see from the above, Offa had only two choices when selecting a gold currency to fulfill his oath to the pope. He could have chosen the Christian Orthodox Eastern Byzantine Empire’s currency, with its associated Christian religious icons inscribed on them, or the Abbasid gold dinar with its associated Qur’anic religious inscriptions on them, which were at odds with his own Christian beliefs. Yet, Offa chose to mint his gold mancus over the Byzantine gold solidus because of the consistent metal purity, weight, “universal” recognition and unparalleled prestige associated with the dinar. ih

Misbahuddin Mirza, M.S., P.E., a licensed professional engineer, who served as the regional quality control engineer for the New York State Department of Transportation’s New York City Region, is author of the iBook “Illustrated Muslim Travel Guide to Jerusalem” (https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/illustrated-muslim-travel/id1200311340?mt=11). He has written for major U.S. and Indian publications.

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