Triton XIX, Lot: 887. Estimate $20000. Sold for $35000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of Mercia. Ceolwulf II. 874-circa 880. AR Penny (22mm, 1.36 g, 7h). Cross and lozenge type. London mint; Leofweald, moneyer. CIOLVVL F REX (three pellets), diademed bust right / LIOF VAL D MO ИET in angles of cross-crosslet, with central lozenge containing cross. Blackburn & Keynes 35 = R.H.M. Dolley, BNJ XXXII (1963), pl. VIII, 8 (this coin); North 429; SCBC 944. Good VF, toned, undertype visible on reverse otherwise well struck. Extremely rare.

From the Dr. Andrew Wayne Collection. Ex Spink 225 (22 September 2014), lot 91; Millennia Collection (Goldberg, 26 May 2008), lot 194; Dr. J. Y. Terner Collection; L. R. Stack Collection (Sotheby, 22 April 1999) lot 337; Stonyhurst College Collection (Christie’s, 10 October 1989) lot 458; Cuerdale, Lancashire, May 1840 Hoard (IBCH 112).

Although a puppet of the Vikings, and dismissed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a ‘foolish king’s thegn’, Ceolwulf II, the last Mercian king, issued a series of coinages that shared types with Alfred the Great of Wessex. Despite the ravages of the Danish army, the monetary system clearly maintained its integrity.