penny aethelred 11 978-1016---aelfstan (the maker) m,o lyda (lydford )--lydford a superb village on dartmoor--from the stryjewo wielkie (poland ) hoard circa 1970.sold in auction london 1973 and then bought by me in auction of the late dr judson 2002--so how did this coin get from lydford,devon to poland.aelfstan minted from 997 ad to 1003 ad.it is recorded in that time that the vikings turned into the mouth of the tamar and then went up until they came to lydford and burned and killed everything they met and burned down orswulf,s monastry at tavistock,and brought indescribable war-booty with them to ships.they then sailed along the english channel,half the group sailed north and returned home the rest went across the english channel to normandy and then to poland?i believe my coin went with them.the estimate is that 400 pennies from the lydford mint exist.4 in exeter museum 1 in museum of wales 21 in the british museum and hundreds in the museum in stockholm
Superb coin Phil - and definitely an interesting history. It is startling how much history can be pieced together for events over 1000 years ago. Well done and thanks for posting.
yes it is aethelred the unready but in saxon english unready ment without counsel--love to see more saxon coins.lydford started producing coins in 973ad using silver mined nearby.a lydford penny would buy you one third of a sheep or a tenth of a cow.if you go to lydford you will see a lane called silver street,the mint would have been at the end ,high risk of fire so away from the centre of the village.-the lydford mint was one of the smallest saxon mints---please post more saxon pennies
