Aethelstan, Penny, church building type, York Mint, moneyer Regnald

Aethelstan (924-939),silver Penny, Church type, York Mint, moneyer Regnald, with depiction of church, BMC type IV (928-933), cross pattée at centre, linear inner circle with legend and outer beaded border surrounding, + AEÐELSTAN RX .:, trio of three wedges at end of legend,rev. decorated church building in upper half, EB over AC to left of roof, OR over AC to right for EBORAC Latin mint name, upon ground line as a dividing line across coin, legend in two lines below, REGNALD / .:MON:., weight 1.52g (BMC IV p.102; Blunt 438 pl.XIX; CTCE pl.7, 24; SCBI 34:237 British Museum; N.684; S.1101).With old tone with traces of deposit, double struck, did have NGC Photo Certificate graded AU 55, very rare.

NGC Certification 4930811-005 - photo certification only.

Regnald was one of two moneyers recorded by North working at York in the reign of Aethelstan who had 28 mints in operation during his reign.

Aethelstan was the first King to use the title King of all Britain - Rex Totius Britanniae and he also decreed that each borough should have a moneyer to issue coin and that the more important boroughs could have more than one moneyer.

For further reading see the special volume XLII of the British Numismatic Journal (1974) celebrating the 70^th birthday of Christopher Evelyn Blunt with his monumental work on Aethelstan filling the whole tome. Regnald is listed as a York moneyer for this type as number 438. Regnald is also recorded working in BMC types V and IX for York.

The eldest son of King Edward the Elder by his first wife, Aethelstan was born circa 894 though later the prestige of his mother's marriage was called into question as it seems he was not at first destined for the throne, as it was younger half-brother Elfweard was elected by the council of Wessex, whereas the Mercian magnates preferred Aethelstan. The issue was resolved as Elfweard died on the way to Kingston on the 1^st August 924 leaving Aethelstan to unite the throne and he was eventually crowned at Kingston on the 4^th September 925. His 25 year reign kept the Kingdom united as he quelled revolts in the West country and along the Welsh border and even carried out the first West Saxon invasion of Scotland in 934. Aethelstan as the first King of all England, died unexpectedly in Gloucester aged around 45 on the 27^th October 939, unmarried, though with an adult heir in his half-brother Eadmund the elder son of Edward the Elder's third marriage.

The City of York at the junction of the River Foss and River Ouse, about 190 miles north west of London has been an archbishopric since 753 with some gold Thrymsa coins being produced. It was the early minting place of coins of the Kings of Northumbria in both copper and silver as well as the Archbishops of York. The mint name first appears on some of the occupational Viking coinages making the city their capital from 867. In 919 the city passed to the Hiberno-Norse Kings of Dublin and back to the English in 927 when taken from Guthfrith. Between 939 and 943 the Vikings were back in town and again from 947-954 but otherwise remained under English rule with the Norman castle even holding out to a Saxon/Danish occupation in 1069 being relieved by William I who built a second castle on the right bank of the Ouse, the City having been burnt. As soon as William departed the Vikings returned but upon William's return they fled back to their ships and the Normans harried Yorkshire.

The legends translate on obverse as "Aethelstan King" and reverse "Regnald Moneyer of York".

Provenance:

The William Oldknow Collection, Goldberg coin auction 120, 2^nd February 2021, lot 1463.

Ex Collection of an English Doctor, part one, Sovereign Rarities, London, March 2022.