Author: BNS Blog Coordinator

A London Street-name on a late Anglo-Saxon Penny – Richard Ambrose and Rory Naismith

The late Anglo-Saxon coinage minted between the early 970s and the Norman Conquest of 1066 is one of the most extensively studied portions of medieval English currency. Even so, new surprises continue to emerge. One such is a Harold I penny from a recent auction which presents, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first known instance of a street-name on Anglo-Saxon coinage.  The occurrence of one street name opens up the possibility that certain other puzzling mint-signatures could reflect streets or districts within larger centres rather than separate locations.

A Rare “Cut Half” Rescued from a Leicestershire Field: Henry III, Class 1a – Continental Imitation – Robert Page

A coin recently spotted on a popular online auction site has been identified as a very rare continental imitation of a Henry III class 1a long cross penny.   It was a Leicestershire metal detecting find and is a “cut half” which originated from the German town of Blomberg in Westphalia.  It is not surprising that this continental imitation has been found in Leicestershire as the county had flourishing cloth and wool industries in the first half of the 13th century, and would have been involved in trade with the continent.

A Small Parcel of Coins from the Oulton, Staffordshire Hoard of 1795 (CCH 266) – An Australian Connection – Steve Green

In 1795 a large hoard of over 1000 coins of Edward the Confessor and William I was unearthed in the orchard of Mr Shelley at Oulton, Staffordshire. Very little is known about the hoard other than there are no known Harold II coins and the William I coins are limited to BMC i and ii. P.H. Robinson contributed two articles to the Journal, the first in British Numismatic Journal Volume XXXVIII (1969), pp 24-30, The Stafford (1800) and Oulton (1795) Hoards and the second to the Miscellania section of Volume XLIX (1979). A small parcel of coins from the Oulton hoard which have been in the hands of the Shelley family since the 18th century has recently come to auction in Australia where members of the family have lived since the 1860’s. This parcel doubles the number of proven coins from the hoard.

Ceolbald of Northumbria: a new look at an old moneyer – Arthur Gran

A moneyer by the name of Eotberht was proposed in Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, volume 68, as a new moneyer for the Northumbrian king Æethelred I.  Another coin has now come to light on the Portable Antiquities Scheme which helps to shed some light on the identification of this “new” moneyer.  From examination of the images and review of the die characteristics, it appears that Eotberht is not a new moneyer at all, but rather seems likely to be a new spelling for a known moneyer, Ceolbald.  This article reviews some the coinage of Ceolbald and tries to draw some conclusions based on the available data.  The coins of Ceolbald are discussed, along with some commentary on the rare “double obverse” coin of  Æethelred I, which fits into this grouping and is also presumably a Ceolbald issue.

Expanding Cross Type: Single Finds on Early Medieval Coinage Site – Hugh Pagan

As readers of this blog will be aware, I am currently looking into the Expanding Cross type of Edward the Confessor, with a view to determining the relative chronological order of its Heavy and Light phases. Having already reviewed for the blog the evidence for the Expanding Cross type supplied by single finds reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) database, it seems to me that it would also be helpful to provide the numismatic community with a list of the single finds of coins of Expanding Cross type reported to the Early Medieval Coinage (EMC) site, with updated attributions and other relevant comment.

Edward the Confessor – Expanding Cross Type, Corrections to Entries in SCBI Volumes – Hugh Pagan

As indicated in previous notes for this blog, I have been looking into the evidence for the Expanding Cross type of Edward the Confessor, with a view to trying to determine the relative chronological order of its Light and Heavy phases, and it seems sensible to put on record such corrections to the descriptions of items in volumes published in the SCBI series as I have so far noticed.

A Hiberno-Scandinavian Penny Orphan Emerges From Obscurity By Evans C. Goodling

The author discusses a casual drop-in visit to a coin shop in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida about 1965 and an inquiry of the shop owner as to whether he had any early British coins for sale.  He responded that his specialty was gold coins of the world, and that he had no early British coins, except possibly for a single unattributed piece which he brought out for examination, a hammered silver coin with a crude bust and blundered legends.  The author, believing it might be an imitation of a Saxon-era penny, negotiated a purchase of the coin with the intention of setting it aside for further study.  Later scrutiny with the help of a paper by Bernard Roth published in the BNS Journal Volume VI (1909) led the author to conclude that his orphan penny was the same coin or a die duplicate as No. 108 in Roth’s collection. Click here to read the article

A Second Find of a Rare Henry III Long Cross Class 2a/1b Mule – Robert Page

The first Henry III long cross class 2a/1b mule was discovered by a metal detectorist in 2006 and until recently was the only known specimen. This short article documents a second example of this rare class that was found by a detectorist in south Bedfordshire last year.  If any reader knows of any additional examples the author would appreciate being informed. Please click here to read the article.