Cnut (1016-1035), Penny, Jewel Cross type, in the name of Cnut, London, Beorhtmer, brihtmær · on lvn, bust left, short drapery, 1.01g/3h (Talvio L1, ‘National A’; BEH 2045; N 797; S 1160). Minor peckmarks, hairline rim split between 3 and 5 o’clock and flan slightly crimped, otherwise very fine and extremely rare £1,500-£2,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The North Yorkshire Moors Collection of British Coins.

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Provenance: From an undefined Danish hoard; Baldwin Auction 18, 12-13 October 1998, lot 1281; Baldwin Auction 23, 3 May 2000, lot 834.

These coins are considered by most authorities a posthumous issue of Cnut, struck in his name from late in 1035 at mints north of the Thames under the auspices of his widow, Ælfgifu Emma of Normandy (cf. Dolley, BNJ XXVII, p.274). The source of this coin, and a further group of Anglo-Saxon pennies in Baldwin Auction 18 that were withdrawn from sale on the instructions of the Danish government, was publicised at the time as being from ‘Estonia’ or the ‘Eastern Baltic’ but it is believed that the hoard was found in Denmark in the mid-1990s and smuggled to Schleswig-Holstein. For an alternative explanation see the footnote to Williams 89ff