This first type, usually known as the First small cross or Reform type, remained in currency for Edgar's last years, the whole of Edward the Martyr's short reign and even into the first years of Æthelred II, who came to the throne in 978/9. At some point early in his reign, however, another of the features that was to characterise the late Anglo-Saxon currency system came into play: the first of many changes of type. More than fifty such changes occurred during the existence of the coinage as reformed by Edgar, which persisted until the 1150s. Within the reign of Æthelred, for instance, six such changes can be seen, manifested in the progression of the following types: First Small cross; First hand; Second hand; Crux; Long Cross; Helmet; Last Small cross. After the death of Cnut, under whom another three types (Quatrefoil, Helmet and Short cross) were struck, types become more numerous and changes presumably more frequent: fourteen types were struck in the years between 1035 and the Norman Conquest of 1066, probably lasting only two or three years each. It is presumed that each change of type required coins of old money to be exchanged for new, with the king and the moneyer taking a cut either as a portion of the value of the new coins or from the minting process. The weight of the coinage varied considerably, even within types, suggesting that there may have been some profit taken in minting by extracting silver from the coinage, though within the kingdom of England it would have been possible to enforce that all coins be accepted at face value regardless of weight. Hoard evidence, at least from before the 1030s, suggests that reminting of the whole coinage was stipulated at each change of type, for a number of hoards survive consisting of only one type. Alongside these, however, are 'savings' hoards, which contain a mixture of two or more types; and a mixture of types becomes much more common in hoards from after the 1030s. One possible explanation for this change in the pattern of production and hoarding is that it came to be the rule, after the 1030s, that only payments to the crown had to be in the current type, whereas other types of English coinage were viable for other purposes.
