Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 1417. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $1600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Secondary Sceattas. Circa 720-725. AR Sceat (0.75 g). Series M, type 45. Mint in Kent or northeast Wessex. Sinuous animal left with forked tongue and tail; pellets around / Segmented vine, with grape bunches, in clockwise spiral. Beowulf 69 (this coin); Abramson M100; Metcalf p. 455, var. d; North 143; SCBC 809A. Good VF, toned. Very rare.

From the Beowulf Collection.

The reverse type is an overt representation of the ‘vine-scroll’, one of the most perpetuated motifs deriving from the Mediterranean world. In Christian iconography it came to represent Jesus’ words in John 15:1-8 -- “I am the true vine” (Gannon, p. 117).