Adapting the roman alphabet for writing O ld E nglish: evidence from coin epigraphy and single‐sheet charters

Single‐sheet charters and coin epigraphy provide valuable evidence for the development of representations of the O ld E nglish dental fricative in the seventh and eighth centuries. This evidence indicates differing K entish and M ercian practices up to the 780s, when scribes in both areas rapidly adopt <ð> to represent this sound. In K ent, occasional experimentation with this character from perhaps as early as the reign of E adbald (616–40 ad ) may suggest a lengthy period of gradual adoption prior to the rapid increase. M ercian practice instead shows an abrupt adoption, which is perhaps the result of reform according to external (perhaps K entish) models.