In the nineteenth century a hoard of coins were found, and among them was a coin with Islamic inscriptions in Arabic. It stated that it was minted in the year 157, or 774AD. The only Latin on the coin says 'Offa Rex'. What a fascinating find! It has led some to suggest that Offa converted to Islam, and even that he had become a Muslim after a trip to Spain. Sadly, there is nothing to back up this exotic theory.

Of course, since Offa's name is on the coin, it was produced by one of his mints. It is considered highly unlikely that the minters knew Arabic, especially since the word 'year' is misspelt, and also that the words 'Offa Rex' are upside-down in relation to the rest of the text.

But this copying brings to our attention an interesting practice of the time, the reproduction of coins by other governments. This was quite common at the time. Muslim mints produced coins which were slightly modified versions of Byzantine coinage, for example. Thus it was entirely natural for Offa to produce a gold coin in the same style as some foreign coins. Gold coins were unknown to England before this time, making it even more likely that Offa would follow the only style he knew for a gold coin.

It is fascinating that such reproduction was not necessarily considered forgery. One reason for minting coins after foreign examples was that traders who went abroad could trade in the local currency. I am no numismatist, but would be interested if anybody could give any more insights on this type of activity.