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Auction: 11024 - Ancient, English & Foreign Coins and Commemorative Medals
Lot: 12

Mercia, Queen Cynethyrth, wife of Offa, Penny, 1.19g, Canterbury, Eoba, female bust right with elaborate hairstyle, trefoil behind, eoba before, rev. uncial m, contraction bar above, pellets in angles within pelleted inner circle, +:c.ynedrfd regin (Chick 140 - not listed; CEB 118; N.339; S.909), full coin, minor crimping, slightly porous surfaces, a good example of this issue, good very fine, very rare Estimate £ 10,000-12,000 The pennies of Queen Cynethryth are the only Anglo-Saxon coins known to have been struck for a woman. Mercian society is thought to have accorded women levels of authority which were unusual in the early medieval period. These issues reflect this with Cynethryth being allowed to issue coins in her own name, a right only otherwise briefly allowed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, before his issues had to be jointly with Offa, as his overlord. The obverse of this coin in thought to copy the style of the bust found on denarii of Faustina Snr. - see an example, lot 287. provenance Bt. Spink, 2007

Sold for
£11,500