The history of Anglo-Saxon coinage spans more than five centuries, from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the fifth century, down to the death of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. It can be divided into four basic phases:

c. 450–c. 550: a very low level of coin-use in Britain, characterised by re-use of Roman coinage, though often in a non-monetary context. A small number of coins continued to be brought in from Gaul and elsewhere on the Continent.; c. 550–c. 680: the ‘gold’ phase of currency, which began with an increase in the rate of importation of continental gold, principally in the form of tremisses. From around 620 English gold coins of similar format were produced, often known to numismatists as thrymsas. By the middle of the seventh century the quantity of gold in these coins was falling quickly, such that by the 670s they were more or less completely silver.; c. 680–c. 750 (867 in Northumbria): the age of the sceattas – small, thick silver coins which evolved out of the latest, debased gold coins. These should more correctly be referred to as pennies or denarii as in weight and fineness they approximated the form the English penny was to retain for centuries, and contemporary references suggest this is how they were known. Most sceattas do not bear an inscription and are thus difficult to attribute. It should be noted that in Northumbria, coins of this format continued to be struck under closer royal control until the 860s, though by the early ninth century they contained only a negligible quantity of precious metal.; c. 750–14 October 1066: the silver coinage of sceattas petered out in southumbrian England in the middle of the eighth century, to be replaced by a broader, thinner model of silver coinage modelled on that of contemporary Carolingian coinage. These new coins carried legends naming the king, moneyer and (later) the mint of origin. With various modifications in weight (within the range 1.00g–1.70g) and fineness this format of coinage remained standard for the rest of the period, and indeed silver pennies of similar design remained the basis for the English currency until the fourteenth century. Pennies of this form were made by English kings from Offa onwards, and also by viking rulers from the later ninth century.;

In the gold phase of the coinage, the currency consisted overwhelmingly of gold tremisses or thrymsas of c. 1.10–1.30g, though a few solidi exist, modelled on Roman coins. Thereafter the currency was more or less based on a single denomination: the silver penny. In the early 870s the first round halfpennies were produced under Alfred the Great and Ceolwulf II of Mercia; these were produced sporadically and in small quantity until Edgar’s reform of the 970s, after which it became common to cut whole pennies into halves and quarters, often at the time of production. The only known examples of larger silver denominations are two ‘offering pieces’ produced in the reign of Alfred the Great weighing the equivalent of six regular pennies, which were made as alms-pieces, probably to be sent abroad.