ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of All England. Æthelred II. 978-1016. AR Penny (19mm, 1.73 g, 6h). Long Cross type (BMC iva, Hild. D). Hereford mint; Beorhstan, moneyer. Struck circa 997-1003. Draped bust left; pellet behind neck / + BУR HSTA N M’O (HE)RE, voided long cross, with pellet at center and triple-crescent ends. SCBI 50 (Hermitage), 695 (same dies); North 774; SCBC 1151. Lightly toned, a couple of pecks on reverse. Good VF.
Ex Sidney W. Harl & Kenneth W. Harl Collection; Classical Numismatic Group inventory 825609 (October 2008); Baldwin’s 57 (23 September 2008), lot 308.
The English pennies with reverse type of the Long Cross were struck in large numbers and were paid out in Danegeld. Reported payments totaled £180,000 (perhaps 43.2 million pennies). These pennies were widely imitated in Scandinavia and Hiberno-Norse Dublin (see lots 1146–56, below).
Aethelred II, nicknamed the Unready, from unræd (poor counsel) failed to check renewed Viking attacks from 991 on and frequently bought off Vikings by the payment of Danegeld. Aethelred, however, provoked a war of conquest by King Svend Forkbeard of Denmark and his son Cnut the Great (Knud) by ordering the St. Brice’s Day Massacre of recent Danish settlers on November 13, 1002.
