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Auction: 23005 - The "Haddenham" Collection of English Coins
Lot: 252

The 'Haddenham' Collection of English Coins | Cnut 'the Great' (1016-1035/36), 'Pointed Helmet' Type, Penny, c. 1023-1029, Lincoln, Matathan "Balluc", + CNVT REX ANG : crowned and draped bust left, wearing pointed helmet, trefoil-tipped sceptre before, rev. + MATAÐAN ON LIN : voided short cross, limbs united at base by two circles, pellet in centre, broken annulet enclosing a pellet in each angle, 1.15g, 3h (Hildebrand 1653 [Type G]; Mossop Aa, cf. Pl. XLVI, no. 5 same dies; SCBI 14 [Copenhagen], 1742 same dies; North 787; BMC XIV; Spink 1158), heavily peck-marked and soft of strike, otherwise with a pleasing dark-orange cabinet tone, about fine / near very fine

Provenance

T Mathews, by private treaty, 1983 - £98


The Irish name Matathan is found on the coins of Lincoln mint in two forms, Matathan and Matathan Balluc. Veronica Smart, "Osulf Thein and Others: Double Moneyers' Names on the Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage", Studies in Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage, pp. 437-453, noted alternative readings of the surname. If Balluc is Old Gaelic, as the forename, it is derived from balach, or "boy". This perhaps suggests a father-and-son moneyer team at Lincoln, both named Matathan, utilising the same puncheons, with the younger denoted by the added patronym "Balluc". The alternative interpretation of this epithet is close to the modern English vulgar word 'bollock', and could simply mean demonstration of Matathan's virility.

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Sold for
£250

Starting price
£50