Having recently spent too much time trashing the aesthetic appeal of earlier medievals generally, it dawned on me to provide something in the way of a qualificaion. To my surprise, it looks as if no one here has posted a helmet-type penny of Cnut. This one, while improbably cheap, took literal years to find. (Actually had another one, conspicuously cleaned, which fell prey to a rent emergency. Ultimately, I was glad of the opportunity --make that, 'goad'-- to upgrade it.) ...I still haven't figured out how to put uploaded pics anywhere I want to, so they will have to be at the end of this. Given which, the convergence of strike, wear and exquisitely understated peck marks (and, why lie, even the pellet in the broach) is as good as I will need for the foreseeable future. The legends go like this. Obv. CNVT RECX A: Rev. PYNSTAN ON LUN (Wynstan, moneyer in London). (North 787 (1024-30); Style II (p. 169, w/ minor variants in the legend); p. 175 for the moneyer.) ...From here, for anything from AEthelred II on, moneyers with Scandinavian names have always been a selling point, along with mints from the Danelaw or farther north. In this instance, we can dispense with that, on both counts. North lists Wynstan as a London moneyer for every major issue of Cnut, along with Harold I and Harthacnut. ...Meanwhile, the contemporaneous Viking presence in London is eloquently demonstrated by this tomb slab from the London Museum, found "just outside St. Paul's": https://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/61240/rectangular-grave-slab-11th-century
A very nice Cnut. The peck marks add historical interest. I've posted my Cnut, which I sold last year, before: DENMARK. Knud II den Store (the Great). 1019-1035. AR Penny (20mm, 1.66 g, 8h). Last small cross type. Southern mint. Struck circa 1010-1020. + CNVT REX DÆNOR :, diademed bust left / Small cross pattée, garbled legend around. Malmer chain 158, dies 639/1832; cf. Hauberg 2 (Lund); Hede –. A few pecks, crimped. VF. Very rare. https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=388294
Before migrating into ancients I built up a small collection of Cnut which I dispersed to make way for more ancients... Here is a sample of the coins that I had at the time. Helmet Type Penny Obv:- CNVT R-EX ANG, Helmeted bust left holding sceptre Rev:- AEDELRINE MO EOR, Short cross voided, limbs united at base by two circles, in centre a pellet; in each angle a broken annulet enclosing a pellet Minted in York (EOR) by moneyer Aethelwine (AEDELRINE) A.D. 1024-1030 Reference:- North 787 Quatrefoil Penny Obv:- CNVT REX ANGLORVM, Crowned bust left within quatrefoil Rev:- CNIHT MO GRAI, Quatrefoil with pellet at apex of each cusp, long cross voided, each limb terminating in three crescents Minted in Cambridge (GRAI) by moneyer Cnit (CNIHT) A.D. 1017-1023 Reference:- North 781 Short Cross Penny Obv:- CNVT RECX, Diademed bust left holding sceptre Rev:- FERDEIN ON EOR, Short cross voided; in centre, a circle enclosing a pellet Minted in York (EOR by moneyer Farthein (FERDEIN) A.D. 1029-1035/6 Reference:- North 790 Short Cross Penny Obv:- CNVT REX, Diademed bust left holding sceptre Rev:- LIFINC ON LINCO, Short cross voided; in centre, a circle enclosing a pellet Minted in Lincoln (LINCO) by moneyer Lifinc (LIFINC) A.D. 1029-1035/6 Reference:- North 790
My Cnut is also London but isn't the helmet type and doesn't have a Scandinavian moneyer. (Working out the nationality of a moneyer is an art in itself, as they seemed to come from all over the place). 18mm, 1.12g. CNV··T RECX. GODINC ON LVND. Sp 1159.
...Serious condolences on your loss. Varous people (whose names I may be able to keep track of, some day) have posted stuff about the AEthelred imitations from Denmark, Sweden and Norse Dublin. All I've got are a couple of fractions (one looking almost more like hack silver than a clean cut) from Sweden. But they're all addictive. This one is (was) brilliant, especially with the contrast between the fully legible obverse and the blundered reverse. Give you the whole spectrum on one coin!
Really Solid example, John Conduitt. The toning is magnificent. ...Right, and somewhere, maybe not even in a numismatic context, I ran into a mention of how Anglo-Saxons adopted Norman names after the Conquest. The same thing might have happened earlier with Scandinavian names, under the right conditions. ...Conversely, I always think it's cool when you run into a short cross (12th century) that still has a Scandinavian name. ...In those cases, one would want to guess that the moneyer really was Danish by ethnicity. ...The whole dialectic between cultural fluidity on one hand, and surprising instances of persistence on the other.
