Very Rare ‘Shrine’ Type

342, Lot: 1049. Estimate $2000. Sold for $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of Northumbria. Æthelred I. Second reign, 789-796. BI Sceat or Styca (13.5mm, 1.01 g, 9h). Eoferwic (York) mint; Cuthgils, moneyer. Phase Ia. ED + ΓRED around short cross pattée with central pellet / CVD CLS, ‘shrine’: cross potent on pelleted triangular base. Booth, Coinage 34-8; Pirie 22; Pirie, Guide, Phase Ia, 3.1f; North 184; SCBC 857. Good VF. Very rare.

This exceptional type was once thought to depict the Shrine of St. Cuthbert, based on an interpretation of the reverse legend as SCT CVÐ. However, current scholarship agrees that the type belongs firmly to the series of small bronze stycas bearing the names of moneyers, and that the legend is more properly interpreted as the CVD CLS, for the moneyer Cuthgils (or Cudcils, depending on the transliteration). In this context, the coin should be appreciated as an intriguing and novel type issued by a moneyer with an experimental bent.