Grimulfr

Wonderful collection @Nap - the designs of many Offa pennies are mesmerising. I love the uncial M that denotes Mercian coinage. I cannot think of another letter/ character on a coinage that is so indicative of its origin. My collection is sadly lacking in Mercian pennies - this Northumbrian styca of Aethelred II is the only coin I have with an uncial M and the Mercian coinage must have inspired the moneyer Leofthegn…

This is an interesting debate and I confess to not properly understanding the role of lead isotopes in the analysis - would the lead not have been sourced separately to the silver? - which clearly serves to confirm my lack of scientific understanding!  The research was widely covered in the UK press and orginates from an article in Antiquity (open access here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/byzantine-plate-and-frankish-mines-the-provenance-of-silver-in-northwest-european-coinage-during-the-long-eighth-century-c-660820/EE2DE1D7955D055FA4225257755BF340) but the following abstract gives a clearer summary of the study: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3fba9aa7-163b-49f0-b883-d14c74a323c4/files/rp8418n97k.   Obviously there was a lot of Byzantine silver plate, spoons et al in the Sutton Hoo burial (which tends to dominate public narratives around Anglo-Saxons in the UK!) and I think that there were similar treasures in the Prittlewell Hoard. I agree with @John Conduitt that in many respects, the analysis raises more questions than it answers - what would explain a large import/ stocks of Byzantine silver in the preceding period to fuel the mintage of the sceatta coinage?  Could ecclesiastical plate from the Eastern empire really have provided such a large volume of silver given that Christianity had only been recently re-introduced to Britain?  What happened to existing silver (including Western Roman silver) that may have been in circulation/ re-circulation?  I don't have any suggestions but I am enjoying the questions it raises and the focus it places on early medieval coinage of nothern Europe. 

Fyi - the Solidus Numismatik lot sold for €5k.

That's a lovely example @JeandAcre.  The early Viking coinage from Scandinavia is stunning but I am concerned at some recent pieces - please take care.  The following (spectacular and extremely rare) early Danish coin from Hedeby was for sale in Bruun Rasmussen's sale last weekend (Auction 916 lot 59 on 7 Nov 23):

The coin had a starting price of 70,000 DKK (c. US$10k) but did not sell.  Today, Solidus Numismatik list the following coin in their Auction 126 on 21 Nov 23, lot 1191 with a starting bid at EUR1800 : 

The coincidence of these coins appearing for sale in such proximity seems a red flag to me. These coins show signs of false distress and the similarities between the two seem incredible for hammered coins (even if struck from the same dies).  I wonder whether some reputable auction houses may be offering these for sale without seriously challenging their origin; I do not mean to question any of the wonderful and provenanced coins in the Peter Preuss collection that were sold in the same BR auction.

Some of those Type J sceats are wonderful and the plumed bird Type E is very well stuck.  The toning of these coins make it appear as if they have been in a collector's cabinet for a long time, not freshly dug from the ground. A continental collection?  Congratulations Roerbakmix!

I love the documentary photography in this piece @TheTrachyEnjoyer, Kent is a special place - including for its rich numismatic history.

Those bracteates are incredible Prieure; it must have been tough to pull out of that auction. 

I am equally curious as Coinmaster as to the nature of the branch depicted in the Frederick II bracteate.  Also can you shed some light on the figure below the lion in the Heinrich VI bracteate- is it a castle of some description?  

Many thanks. 

This looks like SCBI 1020.1032 from the R.P. Mack collection (ex Argyll) - great provenance if so... The form of the regnal name is unusual but the lettering doesn't look retrograde and the bust looks conventional - if it's a Viking imitation, it's a good one!   

32 minutes ago, Hrefn said:

 As you can see, the reverses are not at all alike.  I believe mine is the second Manus Dei type, moneyer is DUDA m-o CARNT for Canterbury.  But so far as the obverses go, I think it is not uncommon on imitative coins to see elements reversed as the engraver copies the prototype coin onto a die.  Your celator did a good job on the obverse inscription, only omitting two letters.   The portrait is reversed, but the cloak is not!  And I do not think he understood the diadem ties.  He very faithfully copied the dot (curl of hair?) below Ethelred”s ear, though.  

Fantastic coin, by the way.  

 

That's a nice coin @Hrefn. It looks to be a rare moneyer and mint combination for the second hand type - there are none in the EMC like this but there was one in the Magnus Collection sold by Spink (your coin?).  My coin follows a slightly later obverse design (the Crux type) where the bust points to the left, although there are a few coins which mule the second hand obverse with a Crux reverse. 

20 hours ago, Hrefn said:

I think this may be the obverse prototype of your penny, @Grimulfr

or close to it.

 

Thanks @Hrefn - does this coin have a Crux reverse? It would be interesting to see the mint and moneyer signature.  The Crux pennies with right facing busts are thought to be the earliest of the Crux pennies and are very rare - this looks to be a "second hand" portrait which I think are the earliest.  There is a very smart hiberno-norse imitation of this type with right facing bust but I haven't heard of a scandinavian imitation with a right facing bust. 

12 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

Fantastic example, @Grimulfr.  I have one possible candidate, bought as an official issue, which just mmmMight be an early imitation like this, but compared to yours, the blundering is so subtle that it might as easily have been from an Anglo-Saxon die sinker on a bad day.  ...If you knew of a website that covers this, a link would be keenly appreciated.  What I have in print (in English) is decidedly fragmentary.

For the Crux type mule imitations, best starting point is probably "Some 'Northern' Variants Etc of the Crux Issue of Aethelred II", BNJ Vol.30 XVIII (1960) - available online https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital BNJ/pdfs/1960_BNJ_30_18.pdf  but the plates are not very clear.  I think the best reference would be Brita Malmer's The Anglo-Scandinavian Coinage c.995-1020 if you are able to access a copy (I don't know of an online version - please share if anyone knows of one!) as this has a full corpus of coins and die-chain analysis. 

The serpent penny is an iconic viking design- what a great coin! You can see one of the few examples of coins minted in Sven Forkbeard's name here: https://vikingar.historiska.se/object_details.php?object=300522_KMK&e=no&l=en).  The earliest Danish imitations of English coins are also thought by academics to have been minted for Sven Forkbeard with later imitations minted for Cnut, even though the regnal name on the coins is Aethelred II of England or blundered. The Danish imitations of Aethelred II Long Cross type and Last Small Cross type imitations are most numerous but this example I have mules an Crux type obverse with an Intermediate Small Cross type reverse so is considered to be among the earliest of the imitative Danish coins. It has a York mint signature but is thought to have been minted at Lund - it doesn't have the jawdropping design of the later serpent penny but is very rare and one of my favourites:

Great write-up @Roerbakmix, these are handsome coins - would love to have one.  I think that there were a number of these found at the 'productive' site at Rendlesham in Suffolk, England but not sure what types they were. Of the known corpus of these coins, do you know what proportion are the original Madelinus types rather than pseudo/ later imitative varieties?  

Danes of York, Cnut penny, 'Cunnetti' type, S.993.  The most common of the Viking coins from York but this example has two small additional crosses that flank the patriarchal cross on the obverse - this variant was not noted in Lyon and Stewart's classification of these coins from the Cuerdale Hoard. The coin is much nicer in hand than in the picture!

Nap - that's great; the english coins appear to stop at Harold I - does this volume also illustrate any norman coins? I recall that the Archbishop Sharp sale contained an incredible example of the Eustace FitzJohn standing type penny (number 12 in Pellinore's excerpt) as well as a Two Figures type (number 11) - as you mention, incredible provenance! 

Many thanks Pelinore - that's very interesting.  Until late in the nineteenth century, it was thought that coin number 12 was struck in the name of Eustace, the son of King Stephen.  These coins are now considered as baronial coins issued under the name of Eustace FitzJohn, a Yorkshire magnate.  Similarly coin 11 (a "Two Figures" type) is now generally regarded to depict Stephen and his wife, Queen Matilda of Boulogne rather than Stephen and his son Eustace.  Coin number 3 is a flag type penny - the flag (or standard) is thought to celebrate the Battle of the Standard where the army of David I of Scotland was defeated near Northallerton.  The illustration for this coin shows an unusual reverse - I think the illustrator has tried to interpret the symbols which are usually found in the reverse legends; all of these coins are thought to have been struck at York and none are known with a London mint signature like this. 

What a great find!  The only 18th century illustration of Norman coins from this period that I have seen are those of Andrew Ducarel (A Series of above two hundred Anglo-gallic or Norman and Aquitain coins, 1757) and   Thomas Snelling (A View of the Silver Coin and Coinage of England, from the Norman Conquest to the Present Time, 1762).  Both have been digitised and I think you can access them online via Google Books.  I would love to see the illustrations of coins from King Stephen and the period in your volume if you are able to post?  

This is my debut comment on the site - so would like to say hello to all and state how impressed I am by the breadth and quality of member content on here!