CNG 105, Lot: 1208. Estimate $500. Sold for $500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

NORMAN. Stephen. 1135-1154. AR Penny (20mm, 1.40 g, 9h). Awbridge type (BMC vii). London mint; G[...]asebi, moneyer. Struck circa 1154-1158. Crowned bust facing slightly left, holding scepter / + G[ ... ]ASEBI : ON VND[ ... ], voided cross within quatrefoil, with inward-facing fleur in each quarter. M. Allen, “The mints and moneyers of England and Wales, 1066-1158” in BNJ 82 (2012), n. 655 = Allen, English 127 = SCBI 30 (American), 784 = F. Elmore-Jones, ‘Stephen Type VII,’ in BNJ 28 (1957), p. 553, 3 = EMC 1030.0784 (this coin); Mack type 112 (unlisted moneyer); North 881; SCBC 1282. Near VF, toned, typical strike for issue. An enigmatic piece.

Ex Marshall Faintich Collection (Triton XV, 3 January 2012), lot 1897, purchased privately from Classical Numismatic Group, 4 June 2001; John Dresser Collection (SCBI 30 entry above); Spink Numismatic Circular (February 1948), no. 1515; Lord Grantley Collection (Part IV, Glendining, 20 April 1944), lot 1300; Henry Muskett Reynolds Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 5 June 1919), lot 62 (where it realized £8).

The attribution of this coin to a particular mint has caused much consternation. Early sales tentatively attributed the coin to the Huntingdon mint, while F. Elmore-Jones, in his 1957 study of the Awbridge type, declared that the coin to be “irregular” and of crude work or false dies. Later, E. J. Harris, in his article on the moneyers of the Normans in SCMB 796 (December 1984), read the moneyer as Asebi, and listed it under the Huntingdon mint (pp. 315–6, Huntington note f), without question. R. J. Eaglen, in his study of the Huntingdon mint, though, doubted the reading of the moneyer, although he still retains it as a product of that mint. Most recently, M. Allen revised the attribution, noting the obverse was an apparently normal die of London, but combined with a reverse that has an ‘enigmatic’ legend, where the colon and L normally preceding VND was omitted.