Iconic Anlaf Raven

CNG 100, Lot: 2260. Estimate $15000. Sold for $12000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Anglo-Viking (Hiberno-Norse Northumbria). Anlaf Guthfrithsson. 939-941. AR Penny (20mm, 1.14 g, 7h). Eoferwic (York) mint; Athelferd, moneyer. + •ΛNL-•ΛF CVNVHC’, raven with wings displayed, head left / + •ΛÐELFERD HINETΓ, small cross pattée. CTCE group IV, a-al; SCBI 4 (Copenhagen) 628-33 var. (legend); BMC 1092-6 var. (legend and stops); North 537; SCBC 1019. EMC 2015.0099 (this coin). Near EF, lightly toned. An excellent example of this iconic type.

Found near Pocklington, East Riding, Yorkshire, March 2015.

In 939, following the death of Aethelstan, the Vikings, under Anlaf Guthfrithsson, occupied York. This occupation lasted until Eadred defeated them in 954, although the Anglo-Saxons briefly recovered York from 944-7 and 948-9. During this occupation, the Vikings struck a variety of coin issues, all quite rare today, with fewer than 200 of all vareities combined. There are three groups of coins that were struck: those following the types of the contemporary Anglo-Saxon coinage, types that were copies of special issues by the Anglo-Saxons or earlier Vikings, and types that were new, original Norse designs. The last group, comprising the Raven and Triquetra types, are perhaps the most intriguing.

The exact arrangement of the Viking coinage has been a matter of great debate, and only recently has the picture been relatively clear, with the advent of specialized studies that examined the coinage in context with the contemporary Anglo-Saxon issues (esp. CTCE and a variety of articles by the late Mark Blackburn). The Raven and Triquetra types appear to have been the two earliest issues from Viking York, with the former believed to have only lasted during the reign of Anlaf Guthfrithsson, while the latter belonged to his successor, Anlaf Sithricsson (Cuaran).

M. Blackburn's descriptions of these coins, in his article in Aspects of Anglo-Scandinavian York, is unsupassable: "[The Raven type] has one of the most dramatic coin designs in the English series. It shows the classic Viking symbol, a raven, with head turned left and outstretched wings.... The following issue also has Scandinavian motifs: a triquetra, a common element in interlace design and a motif that recurs on 11th-century Danish and Norwegian coins, and a triangular banner of distinctive Viking form found in Scandinavian metalwork and on some rare London coins of Cnut. Yet each of these designs can also be recognized in a Christian context: the raven is associated with St. Oswald (a Northumbrian royal saint), the triquetra represents the Trinity in some 7th-8th-century art, and the triangular banner on the coins is decorated with a cross. ...[W]e can speculate whether the designers were subtly appealing to a dual audience. Did Archbishop Wulfstan's apparent alliance with Olaf Guthfrithsson ensure that the church continued to influence royal policy?"