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Auction: 23005 - The "Haddenham" Collection of English Coins
Lot: 157

The 'Haddenham' Collection of English Coins | Wessex, Alfred the Great (871-899), Group I (15-20% Fineness), 'Lunette', Penny, c. 871-875, Canterbury, Torhtmund, + AELBRED : REX, diademed bust right, rev. . NDMO . | TORHTMV | •NETA• ND and NE ligate (1/1/1/1) in three lines within unbroken lunettes, inverted trefoil above, [Spink XRF: 59.41% Cu; 27.60% Ag; 7.08% Sn; 2.65% Os; 1.21% Zn; 0.714% Pb; 0.66% Ir; 0.371% A; 0.31% Fe], 1.00g, 8h (BNJ 78 [2008]: Lyons and Mackay, Obv. variant III, albeit this coin not listed; Blunt & Dolley [1959], no. 171; SCBI 67 [BM], 1399 [Croydon], and [Beeston Tor] 1400; Ennismore 6; North 622; BMC 471; Spink 1057), traced porosity on account of debased fabric with a die clash before nose, otherwise on a neat round flan, struck details very fine or marginally better and an extremely rare moneyer, only three others known to Lyons and MacKay

Provenance

T Mathews, by private treaty, 1998 - £490



As per our postscript at the Ennismore Collection sale (Spink, 15 September 2020, lot 6) - "With both recorded examples of this moneyer from the Whitehorse (Croydon, 1862), and the Beeston Tor Cave (1924) finds accessioned into the British Museum cabinets, the provenance for this coin remains somewhat of a mystery, although a hoard discovery is also probable. On 7 July 1870, Sotheby's auction rooms saw the dispersal of W. Cotton Risley's collection, late Curate of Deddington, Oxon. His cabinet featured amongst others Saxon coins, ten Burgred Pennies, one Aethelberht, one Aethelred I, and four Alfred coins, all described as in 'varied' condition. The latter two were noted thus: "Alfred, bust to right, as Hawkins n. 172, the moneyers HEREMOD. and TORTHMUND. the letters curiously dipthonged, both fine.' Such a collection would be entirely consistent with an early 10th Century hoard, the mixture and absence of duplication within the Burgredians suggestive of a selected parcel from a larger find."

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Sold for
£2,200

Starting price
£400