PREVIEW: COINS & HISTORICAL MEDALS 4 & 5 APRIL

When the Romans left Britain in the 5th century, as the Empire declined, any system of producing coins was effectively abandoned, leaving a barter economy.

It would be another two centuries before the minting of coins began again in earnest, as indicated by the Crondall Hoard, so surviving examples from this early Anglo Saxon period are understandably scarce.

This sale presents an intriguing c.650-700 Gold Shilling or Thrymsa, an East Anglian coin struck just a few decades after Eadbald of Kent produced the first coins of the Anglo-Saxon age.

A detectorist find in East Bergholt, Suffolk in 1998, the coin is a ‘Runic Ring-Bearer’ type of the ‘Trophy’ series, with Christian symbols that are only partially explained.

“While the diademed and cuirassed bust remains much the same, the orientation has been reversed, and the cross and hand motif seen on substantive ‘Trophy’ series is replaced with something altogether different,” says Noonans’ specialist Bradley Hopper.“Here, a large floating cross occupies the upper part of the field below which is a star-shaped motif, with two of the radiate limbs terminating in rings, with another free-floating limb terminating in a ring directly underneath.”

Around two dozen specimens of the ‘Trophy’ series – named for the trophy depicted on the reverse – have been recorded, struck from just five obverse dies. Michael Metcalf, the late author and Professor of Numismatics at the University of Oxford, has linked them, through their unusual and deliberately Christian iconography, to an account of the consecration of Medeshamstede Abbey (Peterborough) in the mid 660s.

The account records that witnesses, including king Wulfhere, attested the charter ‘with their finger on Christ’s cross’.

“However, such an arrangement does not sit comfortably with the known find-spots for the issue, which instead indicate a pattern of circulation around coastal East Anglia with a particular cluster in the proximity of Ipswich, and allows little room for explaining the star and ring variants,” says Hopper.

Just as the obverse appears to be inspired by earlier Roman designs while departing significantly from them, the reverse varies dramatically from other coins in the ‘Trophy’ series.
The ordinary Latin legend has been replaced by runic script, a feature known from only one other true specimen (now housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum) and a contemporary plated forgery.

“Unfortunately, this runic legend has posed difficulties, and its meaning remains unexplained,” says Hopper. “Nevertheless, the very use of a runic legend is intriguing and may well demonstrate a desire amongst the elite of East Anglia to embrace their pre-Christian, and pre-Latin, traditions. Recognition of this prompts a possible explanation for the enigmatic star and ring motif seen before the bust on our coin.”

Norfolk County Numismatist Adrian Marsden has argued that the annulets could represent rings, such as those bestowed by lords to their sworn followers, a feature of Anglo-Saxon society.

“If – as seems likely – the portraits represent the king of East Anglia, then they mark him out as both a Christian lord and perhaps also a ring-giver in the tradition of his ancestors,” he concludes.

The estimate is £6,000-8,000.