Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 1347. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Primary Sceattas. Circa 680-710. AR Sceat (1.25 g, 5h). Series BX, type 26. Mint in Essex or East Anglia. Diademed bust right in dotted circle; blundered legend around / Dove standing right on cross pattée set on three steps; annulets flanking. Beowulf 5 (this coin); cf. Abramson B390; Metcalf 99; North 124; SCBC 776. EF. Struck on a broad flan.

From the Beowulf Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Review XIX.2 (1994), no. 413 and back cover.

The dotted circle resting on the shoulders of the obverse portrait was a particularly popular way of portraying figures in Anglo-Saxon England. Other than serving to separate or highlight the bust from the rest of the type, such a ‘canopy’ in contemporary and earlier artwork was indicative of a protected space (Gannon pp. 34-35). Regarding the reverse, there are multiple varieties of types depicting birds and crosses, all reflecting Christian iconography: the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, and the cross. The diverse array of prototypes, both from numismatics and elsewhere, account for the many variations in their style and presentation (Gannon, pp. 107-112).