Canute helmet type Penny, Lincoln

Canute (1016-35), silver helmet type Penny (1024-30), Stamford Mint, Moneyer Leofwine, variety with cross on neck of helmeted bust left with sceptre, legend surrounding, +CNVT REX AN, rev. pellet in double annulet at centre of voided short cross, broken annulet enclosing pellet in each angle, extra large pellet in two opposing angles and a smaller pellet on inner linear circle at end of moneyer name, linear circles and legend surrounding, +LEOFPINE ON STA, weight 0.86g (cf.Hildebrand 3307; N.787; S.1158). Toned, good very fine and extremely rare with the cross on neck coupled with the extra reverse pellets.

The legends translate as "Canute King" on obverse and on the reverse "Leofwine of Stamford."

H. alexander Parsons listed all the known varieties of extra letters and symbols on such coinage as of 1917 in his article "Symbols and Double Names on late Anglo-Saxon Coins" in the British Numismatic Journal volume 13, pages 1-74.

However no variety of this ilk is recorded there at all, and the only instance of a Leofwine at Stamford producing a coin with extra symbols is during the reign of Aethelred II for a Hildebrand type A piece. The extra symbols on coins usually appear on just the one side so it is unusual to have an extra cross on the obverse coupled with extra pellets on the reverse. What such rare pieces indicate by the symbolism remains unknown, they are enigmatic and either very rare or as in this case extremely rare.

Stamford on the River Welland lies just over 15 miles north west of Peterborough, the Viking garrison there having surrendered to Edward the Elder in 918 and was one of the Five Boroughs. One moneyer was granted to operate at Stamford under the Abbot of Medeshamstede (the former name of Peterborough) during the reign of Eadgar, and some coins that appear with an annulet in the reigns of Edward the Martyr and Aethelred II (first small cross only) are thought to indicate an issue under this Abbot. Possibly a later coin of Henry I type XIV may also indicate this with an annulet on the shoulder; perhaps the enigmatic symbols on this coin may be ecclesiastical too? William the Conqueror built a castle here at the end of his reign in 1086 and the town fell into the hands of the Empress Matilda after the Battle of Lincoln in 1141. The town surrendered to Henry of Anjou after a siege in 1153.

Provenance:

Ex Brian J Dawson, Bolton, purchased 2001

Ex Dr W. J. Conte collection.

Ex Dix Noonan and Webb, Auction 143, 12^th December 2017, lot 722.