Die Linked to the Beginning of Hiberno-Norse Coinage

CNG 105, Lot: 1197. Estimate $2500. Sold for $2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of All England. Æthelred II. 978-1016. AR Penny (20mm, 1.73 g, 11h). Crux type (BMC iiia, Hild. C). Watchet mint; Sigeric, moneyer. Struck circa 991-997. Draped bust left; trefoil-tipped scepter before / + SIGERIC M–O PECED, voided short cross; C R V X in angles. Blackburn, Mint 5 (dies A/a), Unseen coins (a) (this coin); SCBI 24 (West Country), 487 (same dies); North 770; SCBC 1148. VF, toned, some peck marks. Extremely rare and of considerable interest.

Ex Richard Cyril Lockett Collection (English Part I, Glendining, 6 June 1955), lot 686 (part of); Sir John Evans Collection.

In his study and corpus of the Watchet mint, Mark Blackburn demonstrated that there was sudden cessation of coin production very early in the issue of the Crux type. This coin was one of only six Crux type pennies recorded, all struck from the same pair of dies. Remarkably, the reverse die would have a second life across the Irish Sea where it was used with an obverse die in the name of Sihtric Silkbeard, the Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin (SCBI 32 Ulster 9). The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records Viking raids on Watchet in circa 988 and again in 997. However, these dates are not easily reconciled with the interruption of output and the reverse die may have made its way to Dublin by another route