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Ecgberht (c.780), Kings of Kent, Ecgberht (c.765-780), Penny, Canterbury, Udd, EGCBERHT around RX in centre, reverse VDD dividing two vertical lines of three pellets, beaded lunettes containing cross with pellets in angles above and below, 1.19gm (Blunt 4; N. 200 and pl.2, 46, same dies [= SCBI Mack 640]; Lockett 324, same dies [= SCBI Fitzwilliam 428 = MEC I, 1122]; S 874). Obverse very fine and well-centred, reverse better but a little off-centre, extremely rare and one of the finest of the few known coins of this ruler (£3000-4000)

See cover illustration.

The 8th century issues of the early Kings of Kent are among the rarest series of coins of the British Isles. Exactly when in the 8th century the issues of Heaberht and Ecgberht, the first two little-known Kentish kings, were struck remains the matter of some debate. Opinion favours either some time before Offa gained control of Kent in the mid-760s, or to an interlude after Offa’s authority in Kent lapsed (MEC I, p.280). Either way, these pieces are among the very first broad flan English silver pennies to be issued.

The present coin is a superior die-duplicate of the specimen illustrated by North, formerly in the Montagu, Crompton-Roberts, Ryan, Bagnall and Mack (SCBI 640) collections, which was offered in SNC March 1993, item 989 (£4,000), and is at least the equal of the Lockett specimen, sold in 1955 (£165), now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge