Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1464. Estimate $4000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Edward the Confessor. 1042-1066. AR Penny (1.22 gm). Droitwich mint; Heathewulf, moneyer. Transitional Pyramids type, 1065. EADPARD REXX, crowned bust facing, with sceptre / +HEDERI ON PIEPIC, voided cross with "pyramids" in quarters. Stewart & Blunt 5 (this coin); North 835 (this coin); SCBC 1185. Toned, good VF, weak reverse die. Extremely rare, with an extensive pedigree. ($4000)

From the William J. Conte Collection; ex Spink Collection; Spink 6 (11 October 1979), lot 440; J.J. North Collection; G.C. Drabble Collection, lot 541; Duke of Argyll Collection. 

The Facing Bust or Transitional Pyramid type was only used by a few mints in Kent and Staffordshire. Apparently the type was not well received, for the bust right type soon replaced it. Stewart and Blunt recorded 14 examples, from six mints, with Droitwich being somewhat conjectural. Droitwich was also known as Saltwic, from nearby salt mines, or merely Wic; due to its economic importance in the 11th Century it is assumed that the town must have had a mint.