Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 1348. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $715. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Primary Sceattas. Circa 680-710. AR Sceat (1.20 g, 4h). Series BX, type 26. Mint in Essex or East Anglia. Diademed bust right; cross before / Dove standing right on cross pattée set on three steps; annulets and pellets flanking. Beowulf 6 (this coin); Abramson B390 var. (annulet on obv.); Metcalf -; North 124; SCBC 776. Good VF. Rare with cross on obverse.

From the Beowulf Collection.

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).