The North Yorkshire Moors Collection of British Coins formed by Marvin Lessen Part I

Kings of Wessex, Alfred the Great, Penny, Phase II, Cross-and-Lozenge type, London style, Leofweald, elfred rex around diademed bust right, rev. liafvald mon in angles of beaded long cross with lozenge centre enclosing cross pattée, 1.28g/9h (Blackburn/Keynes 30, this coin; SCBI Mack 731, and p.xii, this coin; N 629, and pl. x, 19, this coin; S 1058). Broken and very skilfully repaired, otherwise very fine and full, very rare £3,000-4,000

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

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Provenance: Cuerdale (Lancashire) Hoard, 1840, and at some future point in time accidentally broken in two halves, coming into the possession of two different owners; H.A. Parsons Collection, Part II, Glendining Auction, 11-13 May 1954, lot 131 [the left half from Seaby 1952, right half SCMB September 1951 (5339)]; J.J. North Collection; R.P. Mack Collection, Part I, Glendining Auction, 18 November ].

1975, lot 112 [from Spink January 1964Exhibition: Right half at British Numismatic Society, 24 January 1951.

The vendor’s ticket states ‘Restored for Mack by Baron Nemo of the British Museum’ [i.e. presumably J. Nimmo, an employee of the Coin Department in the 1950s and early 1960s]. The footnote to this coin in the Mack sale catalogue, which copied the implication in SCBI Mack (p.xii) that Mack bought the two halves separately in 1950 and 1952, should be ignored. The two halves were evidently brought together by Seaby and sold to Parsons, who appears to have affected an initial repair, if the illustration in the Parsons sale catalogue is to be trusted; the coin was then acquired by J.J. North and illustrated by him in the first edition of English Hammered Coinage (1963) before being bought by Mack. In all likelihood Nimmo’s repair of the coin was undertaken before Mack acquired it