Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 1396. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Secondary Sceattas. Circa 710-735. AR Sceat (0.96 g, 12h). Series U, type 23 hybrid of two reverses. Mint in the upper Thames region. Bird standing left, pecking berries below; foliage (vine-scroll) behind / Bird standing right, pecking berries below; foliage (vine-scroll) behind. Beowulf 101 (this coin); cf. Abramson p. 59; Metcalf -; North -; SCBC -. Good VF, toned, minor porosity. Extremely rare.

From the Beowulf Collection.

The reverse imagery, with a bird standing in a vine-scroll, was a very common motif in Anglo-Saxon England representing salvation and paradise (Gannon, p. 117).