The Graham Collection of British Iron Age and Hammered Coins

Harold I (1035-1040), Penny, Jewel Cross type [BMC i], Lincoln, Mathan Balluc, nadan ballvc o lin, Lincoln style bust, 1.16g/10h (Mossop –; BEH –; N 802; S 1163). Extremely fine; the moneyer’s name very unusual and very rare £2,400-£3,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Graham Collection of British Iron Age and Hammered Coins.

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Bt Sovereign Rarities 2017

Veronica Smart discusses this moneyer (Matathan Balluc) in her article ‘Osulf Thein and others: Double Moneyers’ names on the Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage’ in SiLASC, presenting two possible interpretations for this figure’s byname. One, rather amusing, possibility is that the epithet relates to the OE bealluc or ‘testicle’. Alternatively, the byname may derive from the Celtic balach or ‘boy’. Smart viewed the latter as the more likely, given the Irish origin of the moneyer’s initial name, although that is not to say that Matathan’s contemporaries would have recognised its cosmopolitan origin.