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Auction: 19004 - Coins and Commemorative Medals: Spring Auction
Lot: 91

Edward the Confessor (1042-66), Penny, Hereford, "Ælfwi", 1.30g, + eadþerd rex, crowned bust right, 'quatrefoil-tipped' sceptre before, rev. + ælfþi on herefor, 'hammer cross' (Archibald {2006}, cf. pp. 200, no. 198; Robinson {1982}, pp. 127, no. 7; N.828; BMC XI; S.1182), toned, a pleasing very fine, rare

provenance
Bagnall, collection dispersed by Spink (acquired 21 August 1964) - £20.0.0
with ticket indicating: "Purchased Spink, 10 January 1953"
Possibly
Bateman Heirlooms, Sotheby, 4 May 1893, lot 316 (part) - "as Ruding pl. 24, 9, elfpi on herefor., very fine"

The cataloguer can trace only three other examples of BMC type XI {Hammer Cross} Penny signed by "Ælfwi" (Ælfwig) at Hereford. The British Museum example, of the same dies as the present coin, was recovered from the Queen Victoria Street {Walbrook} hoard in 1872, and immediately passed into the national collection. The second is also held institutionally, and is to be found in the trays of the Fitzwilliam Museum {SCBI I, 920}, received from the Henderson bequest of 1933, and acquired by the benefactor in 1890, however this differs slightly from the first in the abbreviation of the mint signature to herefo:•.

A further example is to be found in the manuscripts of Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc, a French antiquary and astronomer, who visited London in the summer of 1606, following the completion of his law degree at the University of Montpellier. Whilst in England, he met with Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet of Connington, a man revered by his peers for his collection of nationally-important historical manuscripts and coins. Indeed the 17th Century historian and cartographer, John Speed would idolise him as: "the worthy repairer of eating times ruines, the learned Baronet, another Philadelphus of old Monuments, and ancient Records; whose cabinets were unlocked and Library continually set free for my accesse." [sic]. As with Speed, Peiresc was also evidently enamoured with Cotton's philanthropy and proceeded to document the collection of coins he found at his London residence. Such was the detail provided in his subsequent corpus as to enable further accurate inventories to be undertaken in 1756 (when the collection was formally accessioned into the British Museum following its foundation by Sir Hans Sloane), and indeed as recently as 2006 by the late Marion Archibald in collaboration with Guy van der Meer for the BNJ.

The legend transcriptions of this last coin, which was unfortunately noted as "missing" in 1756, apparently read: "eadþard • | + ælfþi on herefor {20.5grns). Whilst Archibald questions the accuracy of these transcriptions (as variation was noted in their precise recording between inventories), it would seem somewhat unlikely that the present coin could also be the Cotton example given the evident discrepancies exhibited between the obverse readings of the two coins. An example matching the description and condition of the present coin appeared in Bateman heirlooms sale of 1893 and potentially provides an earlier provenance prior to Bagnall


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Sold for
£950