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Auction: 18012 - The Williams Collection Part II, Anglo-Saxon and Viking Coins
Lot: 125

(x) Mercia, Beornwulf (823-825), Penny, 1.32g, 9h, East Anglian mint, Werbald, + beornÞvlf re, legend begins at 7 o'clock, around bust right breaking solid inner circle, rev. er / bald /mone, in three lines (Naismith E25c this coin; SCBI 30 (America), 198 same obverse die; N.394; S.928), edge chipped below second e of obverse legend, and minor edge loss at 10 o'clock, otherwise nearly extremely fine, very rare

provenance:
Lawrence Stack, Sotheby, 22-23 April 1999, lot 316
Spink Numismatic Circular, February 1988, no.134
Found at Wetheringsett-cum-Brockford, Suffolk, 1987
EMC 1988.0157

Naismith lists Beornwulf's East Anglian coins (E21-E25), as reading rex but in fact most of them read re. Here the distinctive obverse die has large well formed letter es, the second one, added after the bust was first punched, has pushed the diminutive bust to the left with the clear signs of the first one still visible. This is also a characteristic of some coins produced for Beornwulf by the moneyer Monna (Naismith E24).

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Sold for
£3,200