sceatn.
Historical and Numismatics.
(a) Historical. A coin or denomination of money mentioned in Old English documents, apparently of somewhat different values in the different kingdoms. (In Mercia 250 sceattas are mentioned as equivalent to a ‘pound’; in Kent the value seems to have been 1/ 20 of a ‘shilling’). (b) Numismatics. Adopted by modern writers as the name for a small Old English silver coin, about 15 grains in weight, the examples of which belong to the 7th and 8th centuries. Also occasionally applied to an Old English gold coin of similar size.
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society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > English coins > [noun] > English coins of variable value
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sceat1720
c970 Merc. Laws ii. (Lieb. 462) Ðonne bið cynges anfeald wergild six þegna wer be Myrcna laga, þæt is xxx þusend sceatta, & þæt bið ealles cxx punda.
a1000 Laws Æthelb. xxxiii. (Lieb. 5) Gif feaxfang geweorð, L sceatta to bote.
a1000 Laws Æthelb. lxxii. (7) Gif þare mycclan taan nægl of weorþeð, xxx scætta to bote. Et þam oþrun gehwilcum x scættas gebete.]
1720 J. Johnson Coll. Eccl. Laws Ch. Eng. Laws Ethelstan ann. 926 No. 2 The King's single Weregild is..thirty Thousand Skeats, in all, 120 Pound.
1789 J. Pinkerton Ess. Medals (new ed.) II. 122 The Skeattas or old English pennies.
1817 R. Ruding Ann. Coinage Brit. I. 203 Sceattæ are known of the early Kings of Kent.
1817 R. Ruding Ann. Coinage Brit. I. 217 The Sceatta.
1853 H. N. Humphreys Coin Collector's Man. II. 410 Many skeattæ are without inscription at all.
1860 C. R. Smith in Archaeologia Cantiana 3 39 The earliest Anglo-Saxon silver coins, commonly called scaettas.
1887 C. F. Keary & R. S. Poole Catal. Eng. Coins in Brit. Mus. I. Introd. p. xxii The immense difference in character between the sceattas and the pennies.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1910; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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