circa 897

King Cnut of Northumbria is a figure known only from his coins. Some 3,000 silver pennies with his name on them were in the Cuerdale hoard, found near Preston, Lancashire in 1840. The date suggested for the burial of this hoard is circa 905, soon after the Vikings were expelled from Dublin. Who Cnut was and where he reigned are matters of conjecture. The king's name, CNVT - Cnut, is written in such a form that you make the sign of the cross when you read it, as in a blessing - up, down, left, right - and between these letters is the word REX ('king'). On the other side, the inscription reads MIRABIL[I]A FECIT, which is Latin for 'He has done wonderful things' - a quotation from Psalm 98, v.1. The Viking kingdom of York was established in 876 by Halfdan, one of the leaders of the Great Heathen Army. The coinage is one of the few sources of evidence which have survived about the kingdom.