Yipes, I did this

AEthelred II, Helmet penny of (?) Cambridge, c. 1003-1009.
Obv. AEthelred to left, 'in armour and radiate helmet' (quoting North).
(From 7 /8 o'clock: ) +EDELRED REX ANGL.
Rev. voided long cross, 'each limb terminating in three crescents' [as in the preceding, equally iconic 'Long Cross' issue --except when they don't, for reasons of space].
+PVL [/] FSIG [/] E M'O [/] RANT. (Wulfsige, moneyer in (?) Cambridge ([G]RANT. ...'Wulfsige' translates to 'Wolf's victory,' demonstrating the ongoing, early Germanic linguistic continuity between Old English and Old Norse (/Danish).
North 775, with predictable variations in both legends. (More on that follows.)

...So, of course, I had to get an example of the Probus prototype. From the esteemed Vcoins dealer Marc Breitsprecher. With thanks to one and all for talking him up in various posts on the forum. This one is from Rome (where Aurelian was building the city walls), citing a reference that's beyond my purview.


I like how Probus' shield, possibly covered with one of several available forms of mail, is reinterpreted, by British numismatists if not AEthelred's celators, as a continuation of AEthelred's mail hauberk, which is very evident in the lower left. But in this AEthelred example, the strap and the round buckle /broach suggest that, relative to the prototype, the die-sinkers knew what they were looking at.
Yes, chain mail, along with the earlier scale variation, were in use in the Roman Empire by the later 3rd century. Given which, I have to like how, regarding such innovations, Cnut's helmet issue, featuring a conical, 'Viking /Norman' helmet, involves then state-of-the-art military technology, rather than looking back to late Classical precedent. (Dating to the later part of his reign, c. 1024-1030; WYNSTAN ON LVN[DE].)




Post stuff with Helmets! Yeah, I already thought about it, and I want to see some (More) Helmets!
...Okay, if you've gotten this far, you just mmmMight be interested in the problemmatic reverse legend, with the moneyer and mint. Right, it's 'PVLFSIGE M'O RANT.' From North --the best reference I have for medieval English, to this day-- the only mints for this type with a moneyer Wulfsige are Cambridge, Exeter, and York. Among North's renderings of any of them, in the original Old English, the nearest equivalent is Cambridge, generally appearing on the coins as 'Grant' (op. cit. p.p. 163; cf. 167 for York).
This was when it was time to pay particular attention to the space available to the celator. You might notice --as I did, after the fact-- that of the ostensible three crescents at the terminus of each arm of the cross, the ones on the left (and bottom) are somewhat truncated. This guy knew he was running out of room.
In this context, I found this fantastic article online. Academic, old, and to all appearances, methodologically solid.
https://brittlebooks.library.illino...2012-12/nordca0001angsax/nordca0001angsax.pdf
An article on Anglo-Saxon coins found in Finland, published in 1921.
The examples listed include two for the mint of Grantebryce (Cambridge) from the moneyer Wulfsige (p. 37). The example of the helmet type has the legend,
+PVLFSIG M'O GRAN.
Here the 'E' in 'PVLFSIGE' is sacrificed for the 'G' in 'GRAN.' (#100.)
A later example has the legend, +P.VLFSIGE M-O GRAI\. (103; 'Last Small Cross' issue, c. 1009-1017; cf. North p. 160.)
In other words, even in late Anglo-Saxon mints --truly state-of-the-art for the western half of a conspicuously small continent-- the die sinkers were always faced with the same issue (space), and did what they had to, effectively on a daily basis. ...So, Yeah, I'm breathing easier about the attribution to Wulsige on Cambridge.

 

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..helmets you say?!....i got more but i don't like to show off..

 

Magnificent coins, VGO. I also like to collect both the "original models" and the issues that were inspired by them.

 

@ominus1, you got some Stuff goin on! I'm seeing vaguely Attic-Macedonian, followed by two close helms that have to be 14th century, just from the (return to) the conical tops. --No, I get it that they're repros.

 

Aethelred the unready. Didn't he end up paying lots of Danegeld?

 

Yup, Yup, and dee-Yup. That's why so many of the extant ones have (Scandinavian) peck marks, and why various types of AEthelred are extensively imitated in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

 

Mn Cordius Rufus
46 BC
AR denarius

obv. - Corinthian helmet and owl
rev. - Aegis w/head of Medusa in center

 

@jdmKY, you NAILED it. That example is freaking Brilliant.
...With the benefit of my preexisting ignorance, I couldn't have guessed that this kind of helmet was still being used as late as this.
Other folks with examples with ancient helmets, Hellenistic (and to either side), or not, Please, Broaden my horizons!

 

Even with Probus you can find helmet variations.

The standard helmet type :-Corinthian

Whilst you sometimes get what are referred to asseudo-Attic

The following example isn't mine:-

 

Nice, @maridvnvm! I need to at least Wiki Roman helmets. Didn't stop to think about a continuous tradition going back to Greece. ...Heck of a lot of silvering for a Probus....

 

VGO.DVCKS, Your pennies of AEthelred II & Cnut are gems ! My favorite coin of a Roman emperor with helmet is pictured below.

Maximian Herculius, AD 286-310 (struck AD 305). Aquileia Mint, Officina 1. Billon Nummus: 11.98 gm, 28 mm, 12 h. RIC VI 61b.

 

Many thanks, @Al Kowsky. That Maximian Herculius is magnificent --I'm sure I've never seen the type before.

 

Max Herc did seem to like his helmets...

 

More coolness, @maridvnvm. ...Now I'm curious. Are there any Roman coins with helmets before the 3rd century? ...I'm wanting to think that there's precedent at least with Baktrian coins --Right? Some synapses are going off!

 

AE3, 318-319 AD. 19mm 3.1 grams

IMP LI-CINIVS AVG, helmeted and cuirassed bust right - fine style helmet!

ROMAE AETERNAE, Helmeted Roma seated right, shield on lap inscribed X/V. P-R across fields.

Mintmark: RQ

Reference: RIC VII Rome 151; Cohen 150; Sear 15354.

 

That one's brilliant, @ancient coin hunter --nope, never saw that type before, either.
I'm going to have to make good on my threat to see what Wiki has to say about Roman helmets. This one almost looks like a departure, not only from Greek-inspired precedent, but earlier Roman design. ...I'm newly appreciating how rich a field mid-3rd -early 4th century (and later) Roman is for helmets! This is fun!

 

Wonderful coin @+VGO.DVCKS

A republican helmet :


P. Satrienus, Denarius - Rome mint, 77 BC
Head of helmeted Mars right, XXX behind
ROMA, She wolf passing left, [P] SATRI[E/NUS] at exergue
3.79 gr
Ref : RCV #319, RSC, Satriena # 1

Q

 

@Cucumbor, that rates a 'Wow.' Bet that one gets you some envy from certain people on the forum!

 

@John Anthony, sorry to have taken this long, but Many Thanks for your kind words. ...I wish I had more practice where receiving compliments was concerned.

 

@Cucumbor, that's brilliant. The design looks like nothing Hellenistic or Hellenic with which I have any acquaintance. ...I'm stuck thinking of Charles DeGaulle's cap.
Right, maybe by way of some intervening Celtic /Gaulish precedent, but I'm making all of that up.
...Never mind the freaking she-wolf! (Where'd the babies go?) The level of naturalism (never mind, for one minute, detail) eloquently evokes the increasing level of realism you can see in sculpture and (--? redundancy alert) coins from the Hellenic to the Hellenistic periods --and how, in both media, the Romans took the realism of Hellenism, and ran with it.