Dr Mark Blackburn
Keeper, Department of Coins and Medals, Fitzwilliam Museum
Reader in Numismatics and Monetary History, University of Cambridge
Fellow, Gonville and Caius College
Contact details
Tel. (direct) 01223 332917
Email
mab1001@cam.ac.uk
Fax 01223 332923
Responsibilities and research interests
Mark Blackburn is Head of the Department of Coins and Medals and is particularly concerned with the Medieval and Oriental coins and historical medals. He directs the Medieval European Coinage project and Corpus of Early Medieval Coin Finds from the British Isles. He teaches numismatics and medieval monetary history to students of History, Archaeology, Art History, and Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, and he supervises research students in Early Medieval numismatics.
His research interests include the monetary history of Early Medieval Europe, with particular focus on Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman coinages, and the Viking coinages of Scandinavia and the British Isles; the recording and analysis of single-finds and their application to monetary circulation.
Appointments and academic history
2011
LittD, University of Cambridge
2005-
Fellow, Gonville & Caius College; Registrary (2007-2010); Bye-Fellow (1990-91)
2004-
Reader in Numismatics and Monetary History, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Department, University of Cambridge; Honorary Research Associate (2001-04)
1991-
Keeper, Department of Coins and Medals, Fitzwilliam Museum
1982-91
Research Associate and Senior Research Associate, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
1978-82
Kleinwort Benson, Merchant Bankers
1976-78
Chancery Bar
1994
Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, PhD under Special Regulations ('Anglo-Saxon and Norman Monetary History')
1976
Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law
1971-75
St Edmund Hall, Oxford, BA in Jurisprudence; MA (1978)
Other appointments/awards
2011
Derek Allen Prize of the British Academy
2011
Holst Medal of Gunnar Holsts Stiftelse för Numismatik Göteborg
2008
Sanford Saltus Medal of the British Numismatic Society
2008
Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society
2008-
Fellow, MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
2004-08
President, British Numismatic Society
2004-
Affiliated Lecturer, Archaeology Department, University of Cambridge
1989-
Fellow, Royal Historical Society
1983-
Fellow, Society of Antiquaries
1980-
General Editor, Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles
1991-
Editorial Board, Anglo-Saxon England
1992-98
Co-Editor, Numismatic Chronicle
1983-87
Co-Editor, British Numismatic Journal
Principal publications
Viking-Age Coinage in the Northern Lands, ed. M A. S. Blackburn and D. M. Metcalf, 2 vols. (BAR Internat. ser. 122; Oxford, 1981)
Early Medieval Coins from Lincoln and its Shire c. 770-1100, by M. Blackburn, C. Colyer and M. Dolley (Archaeology of Lincoln VI-1; London, 1983)
Anglo-Saxon Coins, by M. A. S. Blackburn and S. D. Keynes (Fitzwilliam Museum Exhibition Catalogue) (Cambridge, 1985)
Medieval European Coinage l. The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th centuries), by Philip Grierson and Mark Blackburn (Cambridge, 1986)
Anglo-Saxon Monetary History. Essays in Memory of Michael Dolley, ed. Mark Blackburn (Leicester, 1986)
Kings, Currency and Alliances. The History of Southern England in the Ninth Century, ed. M. A. S. Blackburn and D. N. Dumville (Woodbridge, 1998)
Royal Coin Cabinet, Stockholm, Supplement to Part VI: Anglo-Norman Coins, by Mark Blackburn and Kenneth Jonsson (Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles 54B; London, 2007)
Medieval and Modern Western Coinages, ed. M. Blackburn, P. Ilisch and F. Elfver, in A Survey of Numismatic Research 2002-2007, ed. M. Amandry and D. Bateson (Glasgow, 2009), 228-471
The Coinage of Offa and his Comtemporaries, by D. Chick, ed. M. Blackburn and R. Naismith (London, 2010)
Viking Coinage and Currency in the British Isles, by M. Blackburn (London, forthcoming)