Newp: the prize of my Anglo-Saxon collection

[EVillageProwler]

I'm just going to post the (seller's) picture here, and let the audience try for a bit to determine what this coin actually is. It's one I've wanted for a very long time, graded aEF/EF by the seller, and whose portrait should be revered by every Anglophile historian.

 

I paid a kingly sum for this coin, spread out over several months, and this piece is quite handsome in hand. Seriously, folks, this is what coin collecting is all about: like every American kid wanting a nice SVDB or a Morgan buff wanting a nice 93-S.

 

[brg5658]

Fantastic coin! Looks pretty amazing for being 1130-ish years old! (thumbs u

 

 

[CyberspaceVoid]

nice little Alfred the Great

[EVillageProwler]

Thanks guys. This piece is S-1057A, and is scarcer than the S-1057. They differ by virtue of the lunette (the S-1057A is stylized after Burgred of Mercia).

 

From the seller:

LONDON, Lunettes coinage (871-c.877). +DMON/BIARNRE/ETE . Lyons and MacKay (BNJ 2008) recorded 33 examples of this type with 4 noted for Biarnred out of 197 surviving Alfred lunettes pennies.

Ex:- Croydon Hoard, 1862, listed by Blunt and Dolly 1959; Marsham Townsend, Sotheby November 19th 1888; Carlyon Britton, Sotheby November 17th 1913; SNC March 1914; SNC March 1916; SNC July 1921; H.A.Parsons Glens 11-13 May 1954; Morrison aquired 1984.

[HiHoAudio]

I have paid a kingly sum for a few rare coins over the years but it's always worked out to be a good decision.

 

My wife may not agree.

 

[RWB]

DMON/BIARNRE/ETE or DMON/BIARNRE/ETA ?

[brg5658]

DMON/BIARNRE/ETE or DMON/BIARNRE/ETA ?

 

I asked the same thing ATS. It looks like ETA to me, not ETE.

[EVillageProwler]

Yes, I think the reverse says "BIARNRED MONETA" written awkwardly across three lines.

 

EVP