coinage minted

[legio11augustus]

how quick does the coinage change when an old king is succeeded,why i ask is i was wondering if any exist of Edgar the Ætheling.after the battle of hastings harold was killed ,but before william took the throne .edgar was proclaimed king ..i dont know what timespan was involved but if it was say a few months would a new coinage be struck?has any ever been found?

[Chef Geoff]

He only reigned for two months and was never crowned, I doubt that with a Norman army advancing northward, coinage would have been on anybodies minds

[probono]

He only reigned for two months and was never crowned, I doubt that with a Norman army advancing northward, coinage would have been on anybodies minds

It depends on many factors - many of the more ephemeral emperors of roman times managed to strike coins - Marius was rumoured to have only reigned for 3 days, but there are loads of coins of his (that's why the 3 days is rubbish) - but look at people like Pacatian - coins overstruck (badly) on other coinage.

Gordian I & II and Balbinus and Pupienus are also cases in point in terms of coinage produced and short reigns - but then in anglosaxon times (and later) minting wasn't so centralised, so it's more than likely that Harold's coins were continuing to be produced.

[Chef Geoff]

No it's not more likely at all! We are talking about the Norman invasion, the destruction of practically the whole of the English nobility, this was no "one out one in" Roman power grab that probably didn't in most cases effect the common man this was military occupation at it's finest and most ruthless.
Roman coins would have been minted for longer than the reign as it wasn't as if you could pick up the phone and cancel the coin order  I  would presume that many issues didn't even get minted until long after the Emperor was dead, When Severus died at York I wonder how long the news took to get to the Eastern limit of the empire on the caspian see which is , as the crow flies, is 2500 miles

[legio11augustus]

well ok maybe in roman times news didnt travel fast , but ok he never was crowned but he was proclaimed king and mints very nearby..just really interested that maybe somewhere some of his coinage exists?

[Spooyt Vane]

He only reigned for two months and was never crowned, I doubt that with a Norman army advancing northward, coinage would have been on anybodies minds

The new king ,certainly in later medevial certainly used a variant on their fathers head till they established their own coinage..

[probono]

He only reigned for two months and was never crowned, I doubt that with a Norman army advancing northward, coinage would have been on anybodies minds

The new king ,certainly in later medevial certainly used a variant on their fathers head till they established their own coinage..

That was my point I suppose - as it took some time for news to get to various parts of the kingdom, I'm sure the local moneyer kept knocking out whatever coins he was meant to until someone told him otherwise.....and for slightly later times when you had the 'frozen' coinage Edward III minted coins in Henry III's name for a while after he became king. Of course in the difficult times after the invasion then there would have been confusion - there are no coins of Edmund Ironside either (from a slightly earlier period).

re: Chef's point in getting info across the roman empire, it was possible to get messages more rapidly than one would imagine - for instance Darius (Persian king) was able to send messages ~200miles a day across his roads, so 2500 would be less than two weeks. I seem to remember that if extremis there was the possibility of signal fires and the like - and so this could be sent much quicker (but I can't remember where I read about that).

[Chef Geoff]

The persian system was indeed very fast by the use of multiple messengers in stages, Rome however used a single messenger as they found extra information could be cleaned by questioning the person on arrival, this limited the speed to an average of 50 miles a day. When Agrippa's son, Gaius died at Lycia the news of his death took 27 days to reach Rome a total of just over 1300 miles which again averages 50 miles per day, this is without tides and mountain ranges to add their own degree of time.
Signal fires are a very rapid signal system but unfortunately these only work for one pre known signal

[probono]

I found this interesting website / article if anyone wants to read up on the speed of messages in the ancient world:-

http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/papers/Early_History_of_Data_Networks/Chapter_1.pdf

[Spooyt Vane]

The persian system was indeed very fast by the use of multiple messengers in stages, Rome however used a single messenger as they found extra information could be cleaned by questioning the person on arrival, this limited the speed to an average of 50 miles a day. When Agrippa's son, Gaius died at Lycia the news of his death took 27 days to reach Rome a total of just over 1300 miles which again averages 50 miles per day, this is without tides and mountain ranges to add their own degree of time.
Signal fires are a very rapid signal system but unfortunately these only work for one pre known signal

The Roman signal stations on Cumbria coast could relay information to Southern England in hours.....but mostly to with raiders or pirates in IIrish  Sea..........