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Auction: 21000 - The Tony Abramson Collection of Dark Age Coinage - Part I (conducted behind closed doors)
Lot: 85

Anglo-Saxon England, Primary Series (680-710), Sceat, Series W, type 54, variety 1D, standing three-quarter length figure looking right, bird-like head with long swept-back hair, holding long cross pommée with skeletal hands either side, the right staff raised, celestial (?) pellets above and behind neck, rev. cross crosslet on saltire cross pommée, central pellet, beaded border, vestigial legend surrounds, 0.90g (SL 108-30; SCBI 69, 150 this coin; T&S pp. 152-7, 155; Metcalf, 2016, 59; Gannon 62, 65, 87, 160, no. 21, 161, Figs. 2.56, 5.6b; cf. North 148; cf. Spink 787 plate coin), some rougher nonetheless toned surfaces, possibly depicting the perihelion of Halley's Comet over Europe in AD 684 and further tantalising hints of peripheral vestigial legends, about very fine, very rare, a most intriguing variety

provenance
M Vosper, January 2003
~ Found on a 'productive site' at Heckington (Lincolnshire), early 2002 ~
[EMC 2004.0214 = BNJ Coin Register 2003, no. 117]


The depiction of stars on English coinage has long been associated with observable astrological events in the night sky. As is readily seen on the coinage of the first Norman rulers, the 'Two Stars' issues of William I in 1076 and William II 'Rufus' in 1094 directly correlate with calculated perihelion of a passing comet or a significant solar eclipse, with the Norman conquest even foreshadowed by the appearance of the famous Halley Comet in 1066. With a calculated orbit of 75-76 years, this 'cosmic snowball' is documented in the Nuremberg Chronicle as appearing over Europe in AD 684 directly contemporary with the known period of issue for the Series W coinage. Whilst further numismatic precedent for the appearance of stars can be found on Roman coinage relating to the apotheosis of Emperors and Empresses, it is tantalising to think that a revisit of Halley's Comet with its visible 'fantail' in the night sky could have provided inspiration for an early moneyer conscious of the fragility of earthly power and belief in the fledgling English kingdom.

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Sold for
£2,200

Starting price
£320