UNIQUE SAXON COIN FOUND IN WILTSHIRE THAT REWROTE THE HISTORY OF LONDON SELLS FOR £41,216

A Silver penny of Ludica, a virtually unknown Saxon king of Mercia that was discovered while metal detecting in Wiltshire has sold for £41,216 today (Tuesday, March 10, 2020) at Dix Noonan Webb, the international coins, medals, banknotes and jewellery specialists in their sale of Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals in central Mayfair - 16 Bolton St, London, W1J 8BQ. It had been estimated to fetch £10,000-15,000 and after significant interest in the room and on the internet, it was purchased by a UK collector.”

The coin has on the obverse a diademed bust of Ludica facing right with the legend LUDICA REX MER, while the reverse features the inscription LUN/DONIA/CIVIT in three lines. Ludica reigned for just over a year in 826-7 AD.

Found by keen metal detectorist, Andy Hall, from East Sussex at Coombe Bissett, in Wiltshire in January 2016 during a one off organised visit on farmland, the coin was buried 3-4 inches deep in a rotted down stubble field using an XP Deus metal detector. When found it was in a ball of thick mud. Andy, who is now 55years-old and had been detecting for two years when he found the coin, saw that it was a Saxon Silver penny and took it home before carefully removing the mud. After researching online, he sent details to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge where new discoveries of early Medieval coins are registered.

Initially the coins authenticity was questioned because it was unique and so historically significant. Andy then spent the next three years having the coin examined by experts and then paid for metallurgical analysis before it was declared genuine. Andy says it became his mission to have the historical importance of the coin recorded.

It has now been published in the British Numismatic Journal 2019 and confirmed as an important addition to our understanding of the status of London in the Mercian Kingdom.

After the sale, Nigel Mills, Antiquities Expert at Dix Noonan Webb, commented: “This is a tremendous result for this historically important and unique coin. We are so pleased for Andy after all his hard work and perseverance proving its authenticity.”

Andy watched the auction via the internet, he said “I am very pleased that it went for double its estimate and extremely pleased that it will be staying in the UK. I will obviously share the money with the landowner and I haven’t decided what I will spend the money on, but I know my children are keen to go to Disneyland and I need a few spare parts for my classic motorbike!”

Please note that prices quoted include buyers premium (24%)

NEXT SALE OF COINS, TOKENS AND HISTORICAL MEDALS –
WEDNESDAY 22 & THURSDAY 23 APRIL 2020

Public viewing is held two days before the sale between 10am – 5pm
and free online bidding is available is www.dnw.co.uk.
For more information, please call 020 7016 1700

DNW are on Social Media
Instagram @dixnoonanwebb
Facebook: dixnoonanwebb
Twitter @dixnoonanwebb



NOTES TO EDITORS:
Dix Noonan Webb – a brief history
In 1991, its first year of trading, the company held three medal auctions and sold 1,200 lots for a total hammer price of £553,000. Two years later it opened a coin department which also auctions commemorative medals and tokens and in 2015 DNW added jewellery to its sales calendar. In 2018, it set up a standalone banknotes department and expanded into premises next door. In the same year, DNW achieved a total hammer price of £11,676,580 and the total number of lots across all departments was 20,273. To date the company has sold in excess of 300,000 lots totalling £155 million.

For further press information and images please contact:
Rachel Aked
Tel: 07790732448
Email: Rachel@rachelaked.co.uk
March 2020