Choice Londonia Penny

Triton XXII, Lot: 1369. Estimate $30000. Sold for $24000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of Wessex. Alfred the Great. 871-899. AR Penny (20mm, 1.62 g, 11h). London monogram type (BMC ix). London mint; Tilwine, moneyer. Struck circa 880. ÆLFR ED REX, diademed and draped bust right / TILEVI(NE) MO(NE)TΛ above and below Londonia monogram flanked by small crosses pattée. SCBI 20 (Mack), 737 (this coin); SCBI 68 (Lyon), 608 (same rev. die); BMC 116; North 646; SCBC 1062 (this coin illustrated). Near EF, richly toned. Very rare.

Ex Dr. Andrew Wayne Collection (Triton 19, 4 January 2016), lot 911; L.M. LaRiviere Collection (Spink 160, 10 October 2002), lot 997; S. Holmgren Collection (Ahlstrom Mynthandel AB 62, 11 November 2000), lot 101; R. P. Mack Collection, purchased from Spink, 1954.

Struck after English forces recaptured London from the Danes in 886 the Londonia Monogram issue is the most celebrated of Alfred the Great’s varied coinages. Specimens bearing the name of the moneyer Tilewine are rarer, and were struck for a shorter period, than the unsigned issue.