Proposed ‘Subsidiary Long Cross’ Type

366, Lot: 1091. Estimate $200. Sold for $360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of All England. Æthelred II. 978-1016. AR Penny (19mm, 1.30 g, 1h). Long Cross type (BMC iva, Hild. D). Lundene (London) mint; Heahwulf, moneyer. Struck circa 997-1003. + ÆÐELRÆD REX A(NG), draped bust left / + (HE)·Λ PVLF M•Θ L VND, voided long cross, with pellet at center and triple-crescent ends. Smart, “A Subsidiary Issue of Æthelred II’s Long Cross,” in BNJ 34 (1965), p. 40 and pl. III, 34 (same dies); cf. SCBI 7 (Copenhagen), 861-3 (for regular style); Hild 2659; cf. BMC 245 (same); North 744 and p. 159 note 313; SCBC 1151. VF, toned, slightly wavy flan, scuff on obverse. Rare subsidiary style.

Smart (BNJ 34, p. 37-41) identified a subsidiary style of the Long Cross coinage that appears at many of the southeastern mints. She suggests that these pieces were struck late in the Long Cross type, after the bulk of coins had already been issued and most of the dies used up. The mints apparently ran out of dies and created these crude replacements to continue to supply the need for coinage. North (p. 159, note 313) dismisses these as a regional variation of the main Long Cross type.