Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1373. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $3800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON. Cnut. 1016-1035. AR Penny (1.11 gm). Lincoln mint; Matathan Balluc, moneyer. Helmet type, circa 1024-1030. +CNVT R• ECX A:, bust right wearing pointed helmet; sceptre surmounted with quatrefoil before / +MATADAN BALLVC ON LI, voided short cross, limbs united at base by two circles with pellet in center; broken annulet enclosing pellet in each angle. Mossop pl.XLVI, 9; North 788; SCBC 1158 var. (bust right). Toned EF. Very rare moneyer on an extremely rare type. ($5000)

From the William J. Conte Collection.

The Irish name Matathan is found on the coins of Lincoln mint in two forms, as Matathan and Matathan Balluc. V. Smart, "Osulf Thein and Others: Double Moneyers' Names on the Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage", in Studies in Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage, pp.437-453, noted alternative readings of the surname. If Balluc is Old Gaelic, as the forename, it is derived from balach, or "boy", and indicates there were father and son moneyers at Lincoln, Matathan Sr. and Matathan Jr. The other suggestion is that Balluc is Old English, and is a folksy nickname with a meaning identical to a similar sounding modern British vulgarism!