text: Kentish manufacture before 600 included glass beakers and jewelry. Kentish jewellers were highly skilled, and before the end of the sixth century they gained access to gold. Goods from Kent are found in cemeteries across the channel and as far away as at the mouth of the Loire. It is not known what Kent traded for all of this wealth, although it seems likely that there was a flourishing slave trade. It may well be that this wealth was the foundation of Æthelberht's strength, although his overlordship and the associated right to demand tribute would have brought wealth in its turn.
  It may have been during Æthelberht's reign that the first coins were minted in England since the departure of the Romans: none bear his name, but it is thought likely that the first coins predate the end of the sixth century. These early coins were gold, and probably were the shillings ( in Old English) that are mentioned in Æthelberht's laws. The coins are also known to numismatists as thrymsas.
  Death and succession
  Æthelberht died on 24 February 616 and was succeeded by his son, Eadbald, who was not a Christian—Bede says he had been converted but went back to his pagan faith, although he ultimately did become a Christian king. Eadbald outraged the church by marrying his stepmother, which was contrary to Church law, and by refusing to accept baptism. Sæberht of the East Saxons also died at approximately this time, and he was succeeded by his three sons, none of whom were Christian. A subsequent revolt against Christianity and the expulsion of the missionaries from Kent may have been a reaction to Kentish overlordship after Æthelberht's death as much as a pagan opposition to Christianity.