Anglo-Viking imitation of Edward the Elder, Penny, flower type, Heremod

Anglo-Viking Coinage, Southern Danelaw (c.880-910), silver Penny, in imitation of Edward the Elder (899-924), Flower type, moneyer name Heremod retrograde, small cross at centre, linear inner and outer circles with outer beaded circle and legend surrounding, +EADVVEARD REX, rev. flower with spray of leaves in upper half sprouting from horizontal ground line, rosette of pellets at each end of ground and another centrally at bottom, retrograde moneyer name in lower half, HEREMOD in reverse, weight 1.34g (cf. SCBI 9:314 Oxford; cf. CTCE 341; BMC type IX, cf.102, cf. N.658; cf. S.1078). Toned, with a hairline surface crack on reverse, some blundered letters in legend and retrograde moneyer name on reverse otherwise good very fine with a great pictorial flower, extremely rare.

The flower type in rarely encountered as a true coin of Edward Elder nevertheless as a Danelaw imitative type, making this piece rarer and perhaps even more desirable, being so charming in having a retrograde moneyer name. Additionally, the roughness of the engraving and cruder style points to a moneyer copying a known design and most tellingly the 12% lower weight compared to the regular Edward the Elder issue which also tallies with the southern Danelaw weights as issued for their coinage. For further reading see Mark Blackburn's "The Earliest Anglo-Viking Coinage of the Southern Danelaw (late 9^th Century)." Page 343, published 1989, within the "Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Numismatics. London September 1986.

As of the 2009 auction appearance only two other imitations of the flower type were known both with retrograde moneyer names but struck from different dies.

The obverse legend translates as "Edward King" and the reverse "Heremod".

Provenance:
Ex Spink Coin Auction 201 26^th November 2009, lot 151, appears on front cover.
Ex Triton XVI, Classical Numismatic Group, 9^th January 2013, lot 1547.
Ex Collection of an English Doctor, part one, Sovereign Rarities, London, March 2022.