Sale: CNG 76, Lot: 1846. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 12 September 2007.  Sold For $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Secondary Sceattas. Circa 710-725. AR Sceat (0.93 g). Series J, type 37. Two diademed heads confronted; between, long cross with trident end; double border / Cross, at each end a bird right; double border. Beowulf 58 (this coin); Abramson J400; Metcalf 296-9; North 135; SCBC 792. EF, toned.

From the Beowulf Collection.

The iconography of confronted heads to either side of a cross has a debatable origin. Prototypes can be seen in certain Merovingian issues, ultimately deriving from Byzantine types for joint rulers, but non-numismatic possibilities point to other meanings. Most notably, the type may signify a relationship, either between people (e.g., marriage or alliance) or concepts (e.g., the holy and the secular) (Gannon pp. 37-39).