417, Lot: 555. Estimate $75. Sold for $360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of Northumbria. Æthelred II. First reign, 841-843/4. Æ Styca (12mm, 1.24 g, 3h). Phase II, Group Cii. York mint; Cunemund, moneyer. + EDILRED REX around central small cross pattée / + CUNEMV + D around central small cross pattée. Pirie 3.26l; North 187; SCBC 865. VF, brown surfaces.

Ex Archbishop Sharp Collection (1644-1714); 1695 Rippon Hoard.

Dr. John Sharp (1644-1714) was a clergyman who rose through the offices of the Church of England to become Archbishop of York in 1691. Sharp started collecting coins in 1687 and focused his energies primarily on the issues of the British Isles, acquiring many highly important rarities. Sharp was in contact with several other leading numismatists of his age, including Ralph Thoresby, to whom he addressed his manuscript, Observations on the Coinage of England, published in 1785. The great 19th Century numismatist, Rogers Ruding, regarded this work as, “the first systematic treatise ever composed on the subject.” On Sharp's death the collection was left to his son and was kept together for some 250 years by his descendants. Two dispersals were made in the 1960s: Sotheby, 14 March 1966 (European, Spanish American, together with miscellaneous coins and medals) and Glendinings, 5 October 1977 (British, Charles I to Queen Anne). On 7 December 2018, Morton and Eden sold the coins from Anglo-Saxon times through to James I and some medals. In the words of the late Harry Manville, “Sharp pedigrees are among the oldest available in British numismatics.”