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Auction: 23051 - English Milled and Hammered Coins and Artefacts
Lot: 1035

Eadgar, King of the Mercians (957-959), latterly, King of All England (1 October 959 - 8 July 975), “Circumscription Cross” Type, Round Halfpenny, struck October 959 - 963 [?], Southampton, + EADGA•R REX, small cross pattée, rev. H-A-M-T• divided by cruciform of crucifixes, with pellet at centre, [Spink XRF: 95.10% Ag; 2.39% Cu; 0.81% Au; 0.69% Zn; 0.647% Pb; 0.36% Fe], 0.497g [7.67grns], 15.25mm., 7h (Kevin Hoffman, ‘Anglo-Saxon and Danelaw halfpennies, c. 877–c.970’, BNJ 93 (2023), p. 82 and EGSH-01 this coin; EMC 2023.0244 this coin; North - [cf. 749.1]; Spink - [cf. 1140C]), an extraordinary fractional issue and evident contemporary of the Winchester-signed Halfpence found at Preston Candover in October 2022 and sold in these rooms earlier this year; beautifully fresh for strike and sharp in relief, with a speckle of inconsequential verdigris in recesses, otherwise near extremely fine, the design previously unrecorded, UNIQUE, and of great importance to 10th Century English numismatics thus

Provenance

Found at 1:37pm on an organised metal detecting rally between Winchester and Basingstoke, Sunday 16 April 2023

Reported to the Fitzwilliam Museum, ref. EMC 2023.0244, 8 June 2023

Recorded by Spink, 2 September 2023

Reported to Spink, 22 September 2023

Consigned for sale at Spink, 29 September 2023




Spink XRF Analysis (Conducted 2 October 2023, Olympus VANTA Series L, from which the reading is calculated)



Corpus:



Eadwig (955-959)


North 738 (Floral type C, Chester, Eadwine)

a) EMC 1034.0857 = SCBI 34 [BM], 857; 0.60g, Found at the Castle Esplanade, Chester, 1950



North 738 variety (Floral type C, Chester, Wigelm)

b) EMC 2004.0221; "0.66g", but a fragment in five pieces; Found at Ockley (Surrey), by May 2003




North 740.3; Spink 1128A; CTCE - (Two crosses dividing VV-IN)
-) EMC 2006.0203; 0.56g, 3h; Found by Robert Fry at Calbourne Parish (Isle of Wight), Wednesday 3 May 2006; Recorded with the Isle of Wight Museum (internal ref. IOW2006-40-49; public ref. PAS IOW-FA69C3) ; Listed in the BNJ, Coin Register 2007, no. 290; R Fry by private treaty with A H Baldwin; Baldwin, Summer FPL [published 1 August 2011], AS009 - "chipped around nearly half of rim, otherwise toned, a bold very fine and of the highest rarity" - £6,500; "The Collection of an English Doctor" ["7-367"], dispersed by Sovereign Rarities in three portions from 7 March 2022; this coin advertised exclusively 8 September 2022; and remaining in company stock inventory, ref. GM23854 (£9,750), October 2023



Eadgar (957-959), latterly, King of All England (1 October 959 - 8 July 975)


North 754 (Two crosses dividing VV-IN, and five pellets)

-) EMC 1991.0256; fragmented and lost; Found at St Bartholomew's Church (London), during widening of Threadneedle Street, August-October 1840; cf. Lindsay, Heptarchy [1842], pp. 89; cf. "Catalogue of the Museum of London Antiquities" [1854], pp. 108 - the latter recording that coin's accidental destruction; CTCE 395, Pl. 25

-) EMC 2022.0360; 0.52g [8.4grns], 10h; Found at Preston Candover (Hants), Sunday 9 October 2022; Spink 286, 3 April 2023, lot 404 (£7,800); Private US Collection



Kevin Hoffman, in his forthcoming article on Anglo-Saxon and Danelaw Halfpennies c. 877-970' for the BNJ (2023, pp. 37-93), noted: "Since the finalisation of this article an important new halfpenny has come to light. This coin, which was found in the Winchester area of Hampshire on 16 April 2023 (EMC 2023.0244), is the first of a new type for Edgar. The obverse is of a standard 'Circumscription Cross' type. The reverse, however is unique: it has a long-armed cross crosslet with a pellet at the centre; in the arms of the cross are the letters HAMT with a final pellet. The mint is certainly Southampton, although the coin was found near Winchester. Like most coins of Edgar this halfpenny is light, at 0.50g, and its diameter is 15.2-15.3mm.



The long-armed cross design is quite rare; before the reign of Edgar it last appeared on some of the 'Early York' types (e.g. ECCP-12), in the early tenth century. For the abbreviated mint-name without a moneyer's name the most relevant comparison is the 'Winchester' type of Edgar (WIEG-01 and WIEG-02). As with the 'Winchester' type, the design does not appear on Pennies. From the extremely small sample of three coins that is currently known, the abbreviated mint-name seems to be a style associated with the West-Saxon heartlands. On the pattern of the 'Winchester' type, the new halfpenny should be described as the first representative of the 'Southampton' type: EGSH-01."

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Sold for
£10,500

Starting price
£10000