Billung dukes of Saxony: feudal coins from 10th-11th-century Germany and Frisia

[JeandAcre]

Very engaging perspective, @Anaximander.  York (and York /Northumbria, in the intervals when they under the same rule) strike me involving a particularly complex combination of Norse (including Hiberno-Norse) and Danish elements, both demographically and by rule.  Wish I, for one, had a better handle, at least on the basic outline.  ...And wouldn't it be great if anyone had arrived at an estimate of the relative size of the  populations?

Edited June 7 by JeandAcre

[Anaximander]

If you have been reading this thread, you'll discover that my collection includes a large proportion of Viking imitative coins. It's not intentional! It's just something that I have not avoided.  Here are a couple of nice Viking coins or imitations of coins of 'Englaland.'  The first two are rather common. 

   

Anglo-Dane. Cnut + Siefrith, Viking Kingdom of York. 895-902. AR Penny (1.37 gm, 20.1mm, 12h) L. & S. Class IIb. Patriarchal cross ⠁‡⠠, pellet in each quarter of small cross. CИVT RЄX: C-И-V-T at limbs, R-Є-X follow (reads as CR:.TEИXV::)  / Crosslet in center with two pellets. ✠CVИ ⸪ ИET ⸪TI ⸪. (CVNNETI) around inner dotted border. gVF. Bt. Silbury Coins, 2014.  Spink SCBC 993; North 501. SCBI 36 (Berlin) 118-119 var. (pellets).

 

Anglo-Dane. Viking East Anglia, St Edmund Memorial. 885-915. AR Penny (1.35 gm, 19.4mm, 9h) of Ipswich. Large ∙A∙ within circle, ✠ ᔕC EΛDMVNIE around (S sideways).  / Short cross within circle. ✠ΛOΛLBERT NIE (Albert, Germanic moneyer). gVF. Silbury Coins, 2014.  Ex. Somerset Collection. Spink SCBC 960. BMC p.101 150; MEC 1 #1388-1390; MEC 8 #2457-2459; North 483. cf SCBI 1 Cambridge 461-463; SCBI 36 Berlin 95ff.

   

Anglo-Dane. Alfred the Great ("Guthrum" Imitative). 871-899. AR Penny, Canterbury style (1.52ᵍᵐ 20.4ᵐᵐ 7ʰ) Horizontal two line type, HP9P, of Southern Danelaw. Circumscription cross, ✠AELFR-EDR-E. Peck marks around cross.  / • EÐELV • INΞ ꟽỌ̇ • (Ethelwine, moneyer; ligated NE and inverted M).  VF. Davissons EA 28 #71 aftersale. Spink SCBC 1066; North 635; Blackburn VII p.343 in Viking Coinage BNS 7 (2011), BNJ 59 (1989) p.33 #43.

 

These coins give me great pleasure, and I appreciate the opportunity to share them here with you. 

[Grimulfr]

On 6/9/2024 at 7:02 PM, Anaximander said:

If you have been reading this thread, you'll discover that my collection includes a large proportion of Viking imitative coins. It's not intentional! It's just something that I have not avoided.  Here are a couple of nice Viking coins or imitations of coins of 'Englaland.'  The first two are rather common. 

   

Anglo-Dane. Cnut + Siefrith, Viking Kingdom of York. 895-902. AR Penny (1.37 gm, 20.1mm, 12h) L. & S. Class IIb. Patriarchal cross ⠁‡⠠, pellet in each quarter of small cross. CИVT RЄX: C-И-V-T at limbs, R-Є-X follow (reads as CR:.TEИXV::)  / Crosslet in center with two pellets. ✠CVИ ⸪ ИET ⸪TI ⸪. (CVNNETI) around inner dotted border. gVF. Bt. Silbury Coins, 2014.  Spink SCBC 993; North 501. SCBI 36 (Berlin) 118-119 var. (pellets).

 

Anglo-Dane. Viking East Anglia, St Edmund Memorial. 885-915. AR Penny (1.35 gm, 19.4mm, 9h) of Ipswich. Large ∙A∙ within circle, ✠ ᔕC EΛDMVNIE around (S sideways).  / Short cross within circle. ✠ΛOΛLBERT NIE (Albert, Germanic moneyer). gVF. Silbury Coins, 2014.  Ex. Somerset Collection. Spink SCBC 960. BMC p.101 150; MEC 1 #1388-1390; MEC 8 #2457-2459; North 483. cf SCBI 1 Cambridge 461-463; SCBI 36 Berlin 95ff.

   

Anglo-Dane. Alfred the Great ("Guthrum" Imitative). 871-899. AR Penny, Canterbury style (1.52ᵍᵐ 20.4ᵐᵐ 7ʰ) Horizontal two line type, HP9P, of Southern Danelaw. Circumscription cross, ✠AELFR-EDR-E. Peck marks around cross.  / • EÐELV • INΞ ꟽỌ̇ • (Ethelwine, moneyer; ligated NE and inverted M).  VF. Davissons EA 28 #71 aftersale. Spink SCBC 1066; North 635; Blackburn VII p.343 in Viking Coinage BNS 7 (2011), BNJ 59 (1989) p.33 #43.

 

These coins give me great pleasure, and I appreciate the opportunity to share them here with you. 

@Anaximander your "Guthrum' type is a very nice example. The early Anglo-Scandinavian coinage of York is a wonderful series - here's one of my best with a plain cross on the obverse and an 'Ebraice Civitas' reverse legend (S.989), formerly in the Andrew Wayne and Lockett collections: 

 

[Anaximander]

That's a magnificent specimen, @Grimulfr. A plate coin, no less, for SCBC 2015! 

I was just looking at this type on EMC (Cambridge Museum), and I saw a reverse die match (which EMC calls the obverse) with SCBI 29 (Merseyside) #212.  See also SCBI 48 (Northern Museums) #779.

[Edessa]

British Anglo-Saxon, Danish East Anglia. Coin weight. Late 9th century. Circular lead weight with inset coin (48.10 g). Coin is a local issue of an AR Penny of Alfred the Great (AD 871-899): first coinage, lunette type, circa AD 871-875; uncertain mint and moneyer (cf. North 625; cf. SCBC 1057). Cf. Williams, Anglo-Saxon 21 (for type), and 22 (for value). For weight: good condition, tan and brown patina, small area chipped off edge; for coin: Very Fine. Very rare multiple-value weight. Ex The David Karpeles Collection. Ex CNG MBS 76 (12 Sept 2007), Lot 1855. Ex Goldberg Sale 133 Pre-Long Beach (1 Feb 2023), Lot 2468.

British Anglo-Saxon, Danish East Anglia ("Danelaw"). Coin weight. Late 9th century. Circular lead weight with inset coin (24.01 g with coin). Coin is an AR Penny of Alfred the Great (AD 871-899): first coinage, lunette type, circa AD 871-875; Canterbury mint, moneyer Eadulf. Ref: (SCBC -; cf. BMC 187 [for moneyer on cross-and-lozenge type]; North 625; SCBC 1057). Cf. G. Williams, "Anglo-Saxon and Viking Coin Weights," BNJ 69 (1999), 21. For weight: good condition, tan and brown patina, small area chipped off edge; for coin: Fine, toned, slight roughness to reverse. Very rare, and an unrecorded moneyer for Alfred's lunette coinage. Ex The David Karpeles Collection. Ex CNG MBS 70 (21 Sept 2005), Lot 1249. Ex Goldberg Sale 133 Pre-Long Beach (1 Feb 2023), Lot 2469.

Goldberg Note: Williams' analysis of the known weights of this type clearly places them in the Danelaw during the later 9th century, when the Viking economy was still bullion-based, and weights were used for weighing both coinage and bullion. As with many of the known examples, this particular weight, at 24.01g, is equivalent to a Viking ounce (eyrir) of 24-26.6g. The purpose of the coins set into one end of these weights is uncertain, but Williams argues that they served as a symbol of authority. Although the Viking economy was still pre-monetary, Williams notes that the Vikings were familiar with coinage and likely recognized that their designs were a symbol of authority. He also suggests that the Vikings were probably familiar with the Anglo-Saxon weights, which were validated by being stamped with official dies, and argues that the lack of coin dies for validating their own weights was remedied by applying a coin within each. Williams points out that the fact that the coins were issued by Anglo-Saxon kings was irrelevant, as the vast majority of the Vikings were illiterate.

[JeandAcre]

@Edessa, just got up from a nap, but otherwise, at this point, "WOW" comprises half my vocabulary.  

[Annes Kabel]

I enclose a coin of the Hiberno-Norse type. Struck in Denmark in the name of Hardecnut. There is currently no such type coin in catalogs, or I have not found the right one.

[JeandAcre]

Absolutely Brilliant, @Annes Kabel.  As you've surely noticed, several of us who've 'come out of the woodwork' here are kind of 'gaga' about issues from the full range of the Scandinavian world.  It's fascinating --if not surprising-- that issues from one side of the map can be seen to influence ones from the opposite side!  I'm sure you've seen @Anaximander's stunning array of references, earlier in the thread.  But your eloquent, if implicit point is very well taken.  The publishing doesn't seem to have fully evolved to the level of relatively comprehensive overviews.  (...As you well know, that's true of more than one series of the period!)  ...I console myself with the fact that the scholarship itself, on more incremental levels, seems to be proceeding at a very good clip!

[Anaximander]

Yes, @JeandAcre, scholarship will only get better. It's on internet speed!

And, yes, I think you've got that right, @Annes Kabel. The catch-all entry in Spink's SCBC is (Harthacnut) #1170. Danish Types. <<Types exist in the name of Harthacnut other than those listed above and are Scandinavian in origin.>> This one is Hiberno-Scandinavian in character, in imitation of the Æthelred II voided long cross penny, complete with trefoil of pellets on obverse legend and omega-shaped terminals on the reverse cross, but with no Dublin mint signature or name of Sihtric or Æthelred.  Instead, it likely has a mint signature of Lund and name of Harthacnut (1035-1042). It has a pellet in each quarter of the reverse, which has a precedent in the Hiberno-Scandinavian Phase II Group F, among others. 

Obv. +HARDACVNUT∵ 
Rev. +DO - RE? - L ON LVN (? of Lund). 

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? It's possibly an imitative issue of an imitative issue. 
If you have a dealer flip to share, perhaps it has the weight.