Archbishops of Canterbury 890-914AD Plegmund Silver Penny Berhtelm

Archbishops of Canterbury 890-914AD Plegmund Silver Penny. Moneyer Berhtelm, Canterbury mint.

S900, 23mm, 1.39g

A little rough around the edge and reverse surfaces but a more than acceptable example of a hard to obtain coin.

Plegmund (890-914/923) – the last Archbishop of Canterbury to issue coins in his own name, Plegmund’s task was almighty; with the See of Canterbury and Kent itself largely despoiled by prolonged raiding, much of his administration was concerned with raising clerical standards, restoring monastic houses and raising the quality of Latin transcription in authoring religious documents to the way they had originally been before the onset of large-scale Scandinavian raiding. Proposing the creation of many new dioceses in Wessex, he travelled to Rome in 908 for official Papal affirmation – the first Archbishop of Canterbury to undertake the journey in almost one-hundred years.