Pedigreed to 1862 Croydon Hoard

CNG 109, Lot: 873. Estimate $2500. Sold for $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of East Anglia. Edmund. 855-869. AR Penny (21mm, 1.34 g, 1h). Mint in East Anglia (Ipswich?); Beornferth, moneyer. Struck 855-circa 862. + EADMVND REX A·N, cross on base with crosses emanating diagonally from sides / BEORNFEERÐ MO, cross pattée; pellets in angles. Naismith E56.1j corr. (legends; this coin); BMC 46 corr. (same; same dies); North 459; SCBC 955. Good VF, toned, slight doubling on reverse.

Ex Lord Grantley Collection (Glendining, 27 January 1944), lot 915; William Allen Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 14 March 1898), lot 196; 1862 Croydon Hoard (IBCH 111).

Edmund, the last king of East-Anglia, was martyred by the Vikings in a most gruesome manner in 869. He was later revered as a saint by the descendants of the very Vikings who had killed him as the St. Edmund memorial coinage attests.

The entry for the Croydon Hoard in IBCH notes that the majority of the coins went to the editor of the Croydon Journal, while the Rev. Henry Christmas, who cataloged the find for the Numismatic Chronicle, obtained 12–14 pieces, and William Allen “was given a few.” The present coin was almost certainly one of these “few”, as it was auctioned in the sale of his collection in 1898.