PREVIEW: THE BRAINTREE HOARD OF LATE ANGLO-SAXON PENNIES: 21 FEBRUARY

A notable feature of this extraordinary hoard is the wide profile of moneyers that it includes, from those in Hastings and Dover to others in Guildford, Rochester, London, Huntingdon and Lincoln.

As previously noted, the Pennies included were struck under the last two Anglo-Saxon kings of England, Edward the Confessor and Harold II Godwinsson, and the hoard was buried during the course of the year 1066 – within five years of all bar two of the coins being minted.

It is noticeable that several of the moneyers producing Harold II Pennies in this hoard shared the same name as the moneyer producing coins from the same mint decades earlier during the reign of Cnut. If not a case of coincidental longevity, could this be an indication that moneyers adopted their predecessors’ names or that the posts passed down through the same families?

Among the moneyers featured is Dunning of Hastings, who had struck coins for Edward the Confessor in the early 1050s before striking the extremely rare Harold II (1066) PAX type with sceptre included here, offered with an estimate of £5,000-6,000. A moneyer of the same name went on to strike coins from Hastings for Henry I (1100-35). The first record of a mint at Hastings came in Æthelstan’s Grately code (c.926-30), which noted that the mint had a single moneyer.

The Braintree specimen is only the second Harold II Penny of Hastings to be offered for sale by public auction in the last 40 years. The other, sold through Noonans, achieved a hammer price of £20,000.

The name Cinstan was used by the moneyer from Dover for around 50 years, striking coins for Harold I, Edward the Confessor, Harold II and William I at the Doferi mint. This points to more than one moneyer using the same name. Records show that by the early 11th century reign of Cnut the Dover mint had nine moneyers, although this may have declined after the Conquest, when the Domesday Book notes that the town was burned and then rebuilt.

This sale offers a Harold II (1066) PAX type without Sceptre in extremely fine condition, and lightly bowed emphasising the magnificent portrait. With bright fresh metal and so very rare, it too carries an estimate of £5,000-6,000.

Excessively rare is the pair of die-duplicate Harold II Pennies from the Guildford moneyer Leofwold, coins from this mint being extremely rare during this reign. Again, the guide is £5,000-6,000.

The nearest mint to the East of Guildford was at Rochester on the Thames, 60 miles away. There the moneyer was Leofwine, who struck a Harold II (1066), PAX type Penny with Sceptre, pitched here at £4,000-5,000. A moneyer named Leofwine had also struck coins there in the reign of Cnut (1016-35).

Also striking coins for Cnut was the London mint moneyer Eadwine, who produced the Harold II (1066) PAX type with Sceptre penny offered here from the London mint with a guide of £4,000-5,000.

Godwine was the name of the moneyer in Huntingdon who struck the Harold II (1066) PAX type Penny without Sceptre in the hoard offered here at £4,000-5,000. This takes the total of known coins from this mint during the reign of Harold II to four, the rarest period of output from the Huntingdon mint’s known active status spanning the reigns of Aethelred II (978-1013) to Stephen (1135-1154).

Finally, the Harold II (1066) PAX type Penny with Sceptre struck at the Lincoln mint, and also offered here at £4,000-5,000, was by the moneyer Ælfgæt.