Coins, Historical Medals and Antiquities

Æthelstan (924-939), Round Halfpenny, Ingelri, Oxford? ed el[–] ta ex, central square panel over pincer-cross, rev. [–]eeel ri mo in two lines divided by three crosses, 0.45g/9h (Pagan and Lyon, BNJ 2014, pp.232-5, this coin; BNJ Coin Register 2013, 92, this coin; Blunt –; BMC –; N –; S –). Professionally cleaned to reveal attractive metallic surfaces, very fine, numismatically significant and UNIQUE £3,000-£3,600

Found at Thornborough Bridge (Buckinghamshire), May 2012 (EMC 2012.0167)

Only two other round halfpence of Æthelstan have been recorded to date, one of which was found in the Towcester area of Northamptonshire, less than 10 miles from where the present coin was unearthed. The moneyer Ingelri is identified as working at Oxford from the mint-signature on a small number of extant Circumscription Cross pence (cf. DNW 119, 2389). Several obverse dies employed under Ingelri are particularly crude in their execution. This may be taken to indicate that for some time the normal organisation of the mint was interrupted, with the moneyer unable to receive dies from the normal atelier. The coin offered for sale here, with its blundered legend, irregular obverse design and most unusual denominational size, fits well with Blunt’s observation that ‘something unusual may have occurred at Oxford’ during this time.