In the years before his early death, Mark Blackburn established himself as the central coordinating figure in early medieval numismatics in Britain, an inspiring figure still keenly missed. Part One comprises papers delivered at an international symposium, on this occasion held at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, in 2012, with a theme of Mark Blackburn and his legacy. Attention was given to the earliest gold coinage of the Merovingian Gaul and England. Contributors extended the ground breaking analyses of the silver proto-pennies in the earlier volumes, and the derivation of the word sceati was subjected to historical analysis. Building on Dr Blackburn's seminal work on the later broad Anglo-Saxon and Viking series, the symposium also explored the new historical perspectives to be gleaned from key recent hoards, and included detailed accounts of the current state of research on the Viking mints of Dublin and York.
