Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1321. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $4100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON. Aethelred II. 978-1016. AR Penny (1.26 gm). Lincoln mint; Grind, moneyer. First small cross type, circa 978-979. +ÆDELRE + AELON, diademed bust left; three pellets in left field / +GRIND M-O LINEC, small cross pattée. Mossop pl.II, 13 (this coin); North 764; SCBC 1143. Toned EF. Exceptional strike and amongst the finest known. Very rare. (See color enlargement on plate 23.) ($3000) 

From the William J. Conte Collection. Ex Norweb Collection (Spink's, 17 June 1987), lot 1201; Willes Collection, 132.

Aethelred the "Unrede" is in the top ranks of the most incompetent kings of England. Faced with invasions by Danish freebooters, he first tried to buy them off, and that policy failing, he ordered a massacre of Danes carried out on St Brice's Day, 2 December 1001. The vengeful Danish king Sweyn devasted England, sacking cities, scattering the disorganized English forces and demanding ever increasing tribute from Aethelred. Aethelred died in 1016, unmourned. Aethelred's widow Ælgifu Emma married Sweyn's son Cnut, who became the next king of England. Ælgifu, daughter of Richard, duke of Normandy, would be the mother of two English kings, Harthacnut by Cnut and Edward the Confessor by Aethelred. The connection with Normandy, by way of Æilgfu Emma would bring about the clash of cultures that would culminate in the battle of Hastings fifty years after Aethelred's sad demise.