Very Rare Lifetime Issue

425, Lot: 697. Estimate $300. Sold for $200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANCE, Provincial. Maine (comté). Herbert I Éveille-Chien. 1014/5-1032/5. AR Denier (21mm, 1.34 g, 2h). Cinomans (Le Mans) mint. Struck circa 1030-1032/5. + COMES CENOmANIS, monogram of Herbert (Erbertus) / + SIGNVM DEI VIVI, cross pattée; alpha and inverted omega hanging from arms, two pellets above. E. Hucher, Essai sur les monnaies frappées dans le Maine (Le Mans, 1845), p. 33, pl. III, 1–2; J. Duplessy, “Le trésor de Saulges (Mayenne)” in TM VII (1985), 1–26; Legros –; Duplessy, Féodales 397; Poey d'Avant –; Roberts –. VF, a couple tiny deposits, slight wave in flan. Very rare lifetime issue.

From the BRN Collection, purchased from Aux Potins Senons (Herve Legroux), June 2012.

The vast majority of deniers of this type are immobilized issues struck after Herbert’s death, which continued to be used by the counts of Maine until the reign of Charles I of Anjou in 1246. Although Legros outlined four subtypes that she dated to Herbert’s lifetime, more recent hoard analyses have shown that only the present variety, with the M in CENOMANIS appearing as an O-with-hook, can reliably be dated to that period. These issues are quite rare, and although it was recognized by E. Hucher as early as 1845, it was missing from most references until the appearance of the Saulges hoard in 1985.