This broken silver penny was recently brought in to me for recording, found near Lincoln.

Though the coin is broken, enough detail survives to tell us that it was struck at Canterbury around 823/6 for Baldred ‘King’ of Kent. You might be forgiven for not knowing anything about Baldred for he is only briefly mentioned in a couple of sources.

The obverse depicts a cross pattee with the legend [+]BALD[RED REX], ‘Baldred, King’. The reverse also depicts a cross pattee but has a legend reading  [+OB]A divided by (four) forked ends.

Despite the coin naming Baldred as King of Kent there is some doubt over this claim as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle actually names Beornwulf as King of kent instead. Oddly though no coins were struck for him. Instead, coins were only struck for Baldred.

It is possible that Baldred was set up as an under-king by Beornwulf as had been done by a number of Kings before him.

Regardless, Baldred fled Kent when the West Saxon army invaded Kent in 826/7  and from then on disappears from the pages of history.

The wikipedia page for Baldred states that only 15 coins are known for him, though there are currently two recorded on the PAS database – the one from near Lincoln (LIN-C999B4) and the other from Northampton (NARC-0987A1). 

Notes for coin-geeks: The coin is a non-portrait variety with the reverse legend divided by (four) fourchee ends.This coin is paralled only by an example from Warwickshire recorded on the Fitzwilliams’ Early Medieval Coin Index no. 2004.0098, published in the Coin Register 2005, no,. 151. This coin is an unpublished variety of BLS BI.9 (North 215 with forks in place of the cross moline ends on the reverse).