Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 1422. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $2100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Secondary Sceattas. Circa 720-745. AR Sceat (0.98 g, 9h). Series H, type 49. Hamwic mint. Small head facing in beaded border; pellets-in-annulets and pellets around / Bird (peacock?) pecking right; pellet above neck, rosette below. Beowulf 53 (this coin); Abramson H800 var. (no pellet on rev.); Metcalf -; North 103; SCBC 806. Good VF, toned. Very rare.

From the Beowulf Collection. Ex Lord Grantley Collection (Glendining, 27 January 1944), lot 683.

The facing head in the center of the obverse recalls a similar image on the whetstone found at Sutton Hoo, though the overall obverse type appears to have a Celtic influence (Gannon, p. 28 and n. 42). The reverse type on this issue omits the vine-scroll present on earlier versions of this type (see lot 1395, above), and also modifies the appearance of the bird to resemble a peacock. In early Christian art, peacocks represent immortality and resurrection (Gannon, pp. 120-121).