Twenty Anglo-Saxon coins found near the Vatican offer new evidence of a permanent English community in early medieval Rome. The finds come from excavations beneath the garden of Palazzo della Rovere, where archaeologists have worked since 2020.
The coins include 19 silver pennies and one halfpenny. They were made in England over about 40 years, during the reigns of Edward the Elder, Æthelstan and Eadred. Fourteen coins lay in two small groups inside rubbish pits. After about a thousand years underground, some of them had fused together.
The other six coins were scattered nearby. Archaeologists also found ten Roman and 10th-century Italian coins. Objects linked to work with leather, bone and metal were found in the same area.
The evidence points to more than pilgrims passing through Rome. The English quarter, known as the Schola Saxonum, appears to have supported trade and daily work. The craft area covered at least 3,000 square meters, about half the size of a football field.
Professors Francesca Tinti and Rory Naismith studied the Anglo-Saxon coins with Marzia Di Mento, Valentina Pica and Filippo Salamone. Their research appears in the book Rome and the Others (300-1000): Foreigners in the City between Conflicts and Integration.
The coins came from several parts of England, including East Anglia, Kent, London and the West Midlands. One halfpenny stands out because such coins were rare during this period.
The small denomination also matters for understanding how the area worked. Researchers link halfpennies with trading centers where people exchanged many low-value payments. The find therefore fits with the evidence for shops and craft work near the English quarter.
Written sources had already placed an Anglo-Saxon community in this part of Rome from the second half of the eighth century. They mention a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and two fires in the ninth century.
The church was also linked with Burgred, king of Mercia from 852 to 874. After Viking attacks forced him from England, sources say Burgred was buried there.
The Schola Saxonum stood inside the Leonine City, between the Vatican and the Tiber. Walls protected the area after a pirate raid in the 840s. Its position near bridges also made travel across the river easier.
The new finds provide the first material evidence for the English quarter itself. Earlier research relied mainly on written records and place names.
The coins also raise questions about currency rules in Rome. Researchers found no sign of silver being melted into bullion. Their position in small groups and as scattered losses fits everyday trade rather than the storage of wealth.
This suggests English visitors used their own coins while living and trading in Rome. One papal coin from the same excavation indicates that English and papal money circulated side by side.
Written records from the period often mention papal currency. They also describe foreign visitors preparing to exchange their money before traveling to Rome. The English finds point to a different arrangement for the Anglo-Saxon community.
The special position of the English quarter had deeper roots. Ties between England and Rome began in the late sixth century, when Pope Gregory I sent a mission to the English.
Relations grew stronger under later Anglo-Saxon kings. Offa of Mercia established an annual payment to the papacy in the late eighth century. Alfred the Great also sent alms to Rome.
In 883, Alfred’s biographer Asser recorded that Pope Marinus I freed the Schola Saxonum from every tribute and toll at Alfred’s request. The new coins don’t prove this agreement included currency rights. They show, though, that coins issued by Alfred’s son were later circulating in Rome.
The relationship continued through the 10th century with the growth of Peter’s Pence. In 1027, King Canute visited Rome and continued efforts to secure financial benefits for English pilgrims.
The excavation now adds people, work and trade to this long history. The Anglo-Saxon presence near St. Peter’s involved more than royal gifts and religious travel. The coins and craft remains point to people who lived, worked and spent money there for long periods.
The excavation was directed by the Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma under Renato Sebastiani and Alessio De Cristofaro. MDM Archeologia srls carried out the fieldwork, coordinated by Marzia Di Mento. Filippo Salamone, Flavia Botrugno and Laura Stamerra also took part. Cecilia de Leone conducted the preliminary study of the Anglo-Saxon coins.