A Dark Ages goodie: Saxon Styca!

I was going to slow to a stop with the purchases for a while, but I have been looking for one for a while now, and I thought that by the time I could get to it, the coin would probably be gone already, so I figured I might as well pick it up when I had the chance. Just another injury to a wallet trying to heal I guess :devil:

Love this era of British history, from the departure of the Romans up to the formation of the Kingdom of England. And I am also fascinated by the Dark Ages in general and the Germanic kingdoms. So I had to have one of these. I just have to say, this particular coin has quite a provenance! Discovered in 1847 as part of the Bolton Percy hoard, in England, its been in three known collections since then, before being purchased by me today. Its speculated that this 4,000 coin hoard was buried so it wouldn't fall into Viking hands after their invasion of the Kingdom of Northumbria and the fall of York in 866 (look up "the Great Heathen Army"). My coin was minted sometime between 810 and 840, during the reign of King Eanred, whose name is on my coin. Here's Wiki's article on Eanred (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eanred).

I think my new acquisition satisfies my Saxon slot in my post-Roman Germanic collection

Eanred, Styca - Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria (moneyer: Monne)

Obv: EANRED REX + around a cross
Rev: + MONNE dot around a cross
0.98g. and 13mm


(Seller's photo)

Gotta include the map also!

Northumbria, circa 800 AD

 

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Definitely a nice coin. Hopefully it didn't set you back too much. lol

 

A bit, but I'm kinda in the "sell-off-what-I don't-collect-anymore" mode right now so I recuperated a good portion of what I paid

 

Thats what ive been doing for a few months now.

Nice coin, wouldnt mind getting some later in my collecting life.

 

Outstanding!! Need I say more?

 

Props...

First, props for scoring a coin with collector history.:yes:


Second, The coin selected is Dark Ages phat, and usually quite expensive.


Third, Everyone loves maps, well played.

Congrats on the new purchase. :thumb:

Do you see yourself collecting some Islamic and 'Sassanian' coins of the same period? Your could make a snap shot in time set.

 

Great coin with some great history behind it and collector provenance to boot. I like it.

To follow up with Anoob's idea of a 'snapshot in time' set, you could add another contemporary of this Northumbrian King Eanred.

This ruler's name was...Charlemagne. He ruled an Empire a bit to the south of the British Isles...perhaps you've heard of him?

Although I hear Charlemagne coins can get quite pricey.

http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/20.../03/coin-of-charlemagne-sells-for-160000.html

 

Daaaaaannnng!

 

What a great find. Kudos!

I wish whoever added the last sentence of the wiki article would have elaborated. How exactly were the coins distributed to suggest they weren't used in ordinary circulation?

 

I LOVE THAT! awesome!

 

Thanks everyone! Glad you all like it. Its going to be kinda hard waiting for this coin! When I was browsing through the other stycas and sceattas, I made sure to get one that was complete and with full legends at the lowest price available. There were cheaper ones, but all had some sort of problem (chipped, corroded, weak legends, etc.). I think, out of the cheaper ones I saw, this one was the best for the price.

 

I'm slightly interested in Islamic, and wouldn't mind one or two more examples in the near future, but for the most part, anything south of Europe and east of the Byzantine Empire during this era is too exotic for me and not as interesting. This might change someday, perhaps, maybe, who knows?

I'd really love a coin of him and such a coin would mostly likely be the crown jewel in my collection. Would rather have a Charlemagne coin than, say, an Athens Owl coin or some other famous ancient coin. No I'm not crazy lol

 

:thumb:Absolutely fantastic! Bravo VK! Thank you for sharing!

 

No problem TJ

 

Very nice!

 

This is such an awesome coin... :thumb:

Everyone has their own coin that they want the most...

 

The Styca (cool name for a coin btw) shipped today! Will take my own photos of it when it arrives.

 

Very interesting coin from the dark ages of Europe. A nice addition to any collection. As you say, the period after the departure of the Romans is a very interesting era, in the British Isles, and also in the rest of Europe. An era clouded in mystery to some extent, and not without reason called the dark ages.
I myself am particularly interested in the period before the Romans came to what is now Germany, around 50 BC, when the are was inhabited by Celtic tribes.

 

The ebonics term for "sticker"

 

Lol, I started to pronounce it that way but it didn't sound right to me so I just ended up pronouncing it as "St-aii-ca".