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Auction: 20123 - Spink Numismatic e-Circular 3 - Part I: The Penny: 'From Actium to the Anarchy' (31BC - AD 1154)
Lot: 1531

Mercia, Offa (757-796), Penny, Heavy coinage, South Eastern, non-portrait type, London, Ealhmund, 1.37g, 3h, + OFFA REX, in two lines, uncial M above, trefoil of pellets at beginning and end of each line, rev. altar cross motif on tripod, EAHL•M•VND (legend starts at 7 o'clock) around (Chick -; EMC 2010.0364 this coin; UKDFD 23855 this coin; CEB -; N -; S.908), wavy flan as found, good very fine, unknown to Chick, very rare

Provenance
Spink 265, 10 December 2019, lot 31
Spink 207, 23 March 2011, lot 18
Found by Mick Kemp, Dunmow, Essex, 7 November 2010

Eahlmund is a well-documented London moneyer for Offa's light coinage (cf. Chick 35-50), but has only previously been recorded for one issue under the later heavy coinage (Chick 205). Evidently a related series to the present coin on account of similar obverse dies, the reverse design differs in use of icons, with five examples recorded with a Celtic cross, and this, the first to document an 'altar' or standard motif otherwise not found in Offa's coinage. Since its discovery, a further example has been discovered near Lenham, Kent (EMC 2015.0256) with the further variety of incorporating pellets into the centre of the tripod design.

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Estimate

Starting price
£750