 After Offa's death in 796, usurpers in Kent and East Anglia – Eadbearht Præn and Eadwald – took power and issued coins in their own names, following the design of Offa' heavy coinage.After a small issue at London based on this same type, the new Mercian ruler Coenwulf instituted a reform of the coinage leading to the new "tribrach" type.This non-portrait type used an obverse design modelled on the earlier coinage of Cynethryth, and despite its use of the central M (for "Merciorum") was adopted by Eadbearht, Eadwald and even by Beorhtric of Wessex, who struck a very rare coinage around this time.