Cædmon in the seventh century, the word sceat is used for the passage in which Abraham declares he would take ‘neither sceat ne scilling’ from the King of Sodom. Sceatts and scillings are mentioned in one of the Northern Sagas—‘The Scald’s Tale’—so that sceatts must have been known in the North of Europe, the original home of the Goths. That the coin was in use among the people of this race is shown by its name in the translation of the Gospels made in the fourth century by Bishop Ulphilas for the Mœso-Goths, who had migrated from the North and settled near the lower course of the Danube. In the passage ‘Show me a penny,’ etc., the Latin word denarius is translated skatt in two instances. Its occurrence in the Kentish laws thus points to Goths, and the use of a similar name in Mercia and Northumbria indicates a Gothic influence.
From the evidence that has been stated, the Scandinavian origin of the Jutes appears to be conclusive, and this is supported by the early monetary currency in the Kentish kingdom. The Kentish shilling differed greatly from those of Wessex and Mercia. It was much more valuable, and of the weight of a Roman ounce of silver, or 576 wheat-grains.[1] This was the same as the Scandinavian ora,[2] which was divided into smaller silver coins, each one-third of its weight and value, called the ortug, weighing 192 grains of wheat. This latter was of the same weight and value as the Greek stater of the Eastern Empire.[3]
In Kent, therefore, we find that the earliest shilling, which was worth 20 sceatts, or 1 ounce of silver, was the equivalent also of 3 Byzantine staters. Consequently, in this monetary equivalence we see on the one hand evidence of the Scandinavian connection of the Kentish Jutes or Goths, and on the other evidence of the Eastern commerce between the Goths of the Baltic regions and the Greek merchants of the Eastern Empire.
