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Thrymsa crude bust type
| Issuer | Early Anglo-Saxon |
|---|---|
| Year | 620-645 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.36 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A bold cross pattee with expanded arms dominates the central field, functioning as an orbis cruciger motif. Beneath the cross, three horizontal stepped lines represent a stylised representation of steps or a platform, evoking the Calvary or altar base type derived from Byzantine coinage. A sinuous serpentine figure or degraded inscription curves around the left side of the field. The flan edge is ragged and irregular, consistent with early Anglo-Saxon hammered gold coinage. |
| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
The thrymsa was England's first indigenous gold coinage, emerging as Anglo-Saxon moneyers began adapting late Roman and Frankish tremissis prototypes. The crude bust type marks a transitional moment when direct copying of Continental models gave way to increasingly abstracted native interpretations — a process that accelerated rapidly, with designs degenerating across successive dies until the original source is barely recognizable.
Metcalf's die study places this type firmly within the Kent and London production zones, though attribution to a specific mint remains impossible without archaeological provenance.