sceat Hist. and Numism.
Pl. sceattas. Also written 8–9 skeat (pl. skeats, skeattas), 9 scaett (pl. scaettas); 9 erron. forms sceatta, skeatta, pl. sceattæ, skeattæ.
[a. OE. sceat, scætt (see scat n.1). The OE. pronunciation was (ʃat) or (ʃæt).]
a. Hist. A coin or denomination of money mentioned in OE. documents, app. of somewhat different values in the different kingdoms. (In Mercia 250 sceattas are mentioned as equivalent to a ‘pound’; in Kent the value seems to have been 1/20 of a ‘shilling’). b. Numism. Adopted by modern writers as the name for a small Old English silver coin, about 15 grains in weight, the examples of which belong to the 7th and 8th c. Also occas. applied to an Old English gold coin of similar size.
| [c 970 Merc. Laws ii. (Lieb. 462), Ðonne bið cynges anfeald werᵹild six þeᵹna wer be Myrcna laᵹa, þæt is xxx þusend sceatta, & þæt bið ealles cxx punda. a 1000 Laws æthelb. xxxiii. (Lieb. 5), Gif feaxfang ᵹeweorð, L sceatta to bote. Ibid. lxxii. (7), Gif þare mycclan taan næᵹl of weorþeð, xxx scætta to bote. Et þam oþrun ᵹehwilcum x scættas ᵹebete.] 1720 J. Johnson Collect. Eccl. Laws etc. Ch. Eng. Laws Ethelstan an. 926 No. 2, The King's single Weregild is..thirty Thousand Skeats, in all, 120 Pound. 1817 R. Ruding Ann. Coinage I. 203 Sceattæ are known of the early Kings of Kent. Ibid. 217 The Sceatta. 1845 Petrie Eccl. Archit. Ireland 224 The skeattas or English pennies. 1853 Humphreys Coin Collect. Man. II. 410 Many skeattæ are with⁓out inscription at all. 1860 C. R. Smith in Archæol. Cantiana III. 39 The earliest Anglo-Saxon silver coins, commonly called scaettas. 1887 C. F. Keary Catal. Ags. Coins Brit. Mus. Introd. 22 The immense difference in character between the sceattas and the pennies. |