Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 14004 - Ancient, British and Foreign Coins and Commemorative Medals
Lot: 1343

Mercia, Offa, Penny, 1.18g, light coinage, c.779-92, portrait type, London, Sothing, diademed bust right, :+.of.f.a. rex+, rev. +s / oÐ / in / g, retrograde s, around arms of lozenge fleury within a large annulet containing a pellet, cruciform pellets around (Chick 71a; same obverse die as 71a; different reverse die; Blunt -; N. -; S.905), slight edge loss between 7 and 12 o'clock, good bust, good very fine, extremely rare

provenance
Found Alford, Lincs.
Recorded with the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, EMC 2013.0367

Chick 71a, which matches this coin, is tentatively attributed to the moneyer Winoth by Chick. The moneyer's name on this coin, a second example of the type, is struck from a different reverse die to that for Chick 71a and cannot be accepted as reading Winoth. The moneyer's name commences after a small cross, not on the Chick coin, with what is clearly an inverted s and reads +soÐing, i.e. Sothing. No moneyer of this name is otherwise recorded for Offa. It is noted in the Fitzwilliam Museum EMC as Sothing and this is the first known example of this name from Anglo-Saxon England.

Subject to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium. For more information please view Terms and Conditions for Buyers.

Sold for
£4,000