Over recent months my collection has undergone some radical changes, what i'd call a 'numismatic shift'. Basically it goes as follows, sixpences OUT, hammered pennies IN. And with this shift i've seemingly landed myself into a new, and addictive world. They say there's no cure for hammereditis... oh boy; Until this morning the oldest coin in my collection was a mere 869 years old. My much loved (by me at any rate) King Stephen penny struck sometime around 1136. However this morning i finally broke the 1000 barrier in more ways than one! Firstly because this coin is roughly 1080 years old and thus secondly because it was issued before the year 1000. Enter King Æthelstan (or Athelstan depending on whether you like digraphs or not), whom ruled England and helped to unify most of the English kingdoms, although he didn't quite complete this task before his death he had greatly increased the kingdom of his father (Edward the Elder) and his grandfather (Alfred the Great). Which for someone who was reportedly illegitimate wasn't bad going. Admittedly Athelstan's death in 939 put paid to the fully unified England as the opposition that had feared and respected him had no such qualms about tackling his successor (and half-brother) King Edmund. Then followed a period of bitter struggles against such individuals as Eric Bloodaxe in the 940s. The successive kings, Edmund, Eadred and Eadwig all battled with mixed results. The work of Athelstan was not revived until the reign of King Eadgar (half brother of Eadwig). Making Athelstan a landmark in English history for his attempts to unify the kingdom, his extensive contributions to the development of better managed written records and his lasting desire to reform the currency so that the silver penny became standard throughout his kingdom. He set the foundations for Eadgar to take the credit.
I've been waiting for one of these coins for such a long, long time... I stubled upon it by accident and when a dream coin from your newbie (or in my case childhood days) comes along i couldn't let it get away. It certainly took the sting off of selling all those sixpences. I promised myself several coins as a child that i'd hope to get, there's not a great deal left on my dream coin list, i've bought alot of them! This one was the tough cookie of the bunch.
Nice piece Syl. Wait until you get into Sceats, then they get challenging, nice ones are hard to find. I am glad I got the Northumbria sceats when I did many years ago.
Sylvester,you really have to be very careful with Anglo-Saxon English silver 1d.'s.There are a lot of very deceptive forgeries of the coins. Aidan.
This is something that does indeed concern me. I bought this one from a dealer who specialises in Roman-1066 antiquities, coins, statues, archaeological artefacts etc. Who has also published a book on archaeological artefacts with price guides. But i am going to try and get over to York today sometime and get the coin appraised by a dealer there, that's if he's come back from his holidays yet. Actually i know of another dealer in York whom specialises in the same period as the dealer that sold me the coin (in fact he sells much the same, celtic, ancient, coins and antiquities... except he does Egyptian too!)
Well i went yesterday to York and i got a dealer to check the coin out. All kosher, and the dealer i bought it from is indeed very reliable. I'll ensure i buy future anglo-saxon purchases from that dealer.
Sylvester,I am pleased that you got an experienced dealer to have a look at the piece.Boy,that is a nice find. Aidan.
I always do my homework Aidan, and if i'm not sure or uncertain i will ask for help and advice gladly. This is a totally new field to me, so i don't know much if anything about it.
