One of my main areas of interest are Northumbrian stycas. These are base metal copper/brass coins of 9th century northern England that are some of the most boring coins ever made. The typical one has a central cross, with a king's name around the edge on one side, with the moneyer's name on the other. These coins excite me, but not too many others, due to their small size, base metal, and lack of artistic merit. There were 40 different moneyers who produced stycas (here if interested: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/completed-a-moneyer-set-of-anglo-saxon-northumbrian-stycas.279085/), but only one of these guys stands out above the rest, with a flair for the artistic. His name was Leofthegn, literally meaning "beloved retainer." Unlike some of the moneyers who had careers that spanned multiple kings' reigns, Leofthegn just worked for the Northumbrian king Aethelred II (not the Unready, that's a different king), who had a reign of about 8 years. Leofthegn's coins are the most prolific of Aethelred's reign. A very small group of Leofthegn's coins was produced that depict an animal, probably hearkening back to the heraldic animal (sometimes called a "fantastic beast") which was on coins of the 8th century. There is also a triquetra smooshed in there which is another old symbol of Northumbrian royalty. The design did not take hold, and no other moneyers of these coins feature the animal. It is not clear whether these coins served a special purpose, such as presentation. They are a little larger and heavier than the average coin of this period, but not greatly so. Here is my newly acquired example of this coin. In the years that I've been collecting, I have only seen two other examples of this issue sold, and both were in atrocious condition. This coin is somewhat gnarly, but considered choice for the issue. It comes from the famous R.C. Lockett collection, and was my major purchase from the NYINC auctions. O: +EDILRED REX (King Aethelred) R: LEOF/DEG/N
Congrats on the life lister. I think it looks pretty awesome. All the more so with it's extreme rarity! Thanks for the history lesson as well
Congrats on the coin and nice write-up @Nap I was unaware of stycas until your post. Did the styca replace the sceat in Northumbria?
Nice one @Nap. I have one of the irregular issues. ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of Northumbria. Irregular issues. Circa 843/4-855. Æ Styca (12mm, 0.73 g, 10h). Phase II, group Dii. Eoferwic (York) mint. Blundered legend around central cross pattée / Blundered legend around central cross pattée.
@Nap Really interesting coin and write-up. Do you know if the D on the obverse and reverse yields a /d/ sound as in “dog,” or is it really a capital eth Đ with a “th” sound?
I knew nothing about these coins until reading this thread. Great write up and the coin is awesome, congrats!!
Looks to me as if it is an eth. I have also seen wynn on anglo-saxon coins. It looks like a 'p' but is pronounced 'w'. For example one moneyer I have seen was 'wulfwig' of Canterbury spelled 'pvlfpig'.
Interesting coin, and I totally dig that coin art. I like all sort of stuff besides "fine style" Greek classical stuff. I really like this coin, even though it wasn't one of Kimon's works. Celtic Gaul, 1st Century BC O: head, R: board and hills, 18 mm, 3.2g, LT 9155 @Sharie Winn start a thread over here to get a answer to your question! https://www.cointalk.com/forums/us-coins/
Yes, the proper pronunciation would be 'Leofthegn', not 'Leofdegn' These coins are confusing since they go back and forth beteen 'D' and 'Eth' with the same letter. On the obverse it reads "EDILRED" which is certain to read Æðelræd, and you're just supposed to know that. If you wonder why modern English is confusing, just look at the Old English roots.
Coinage in Northumbria took a somewhat different course in the early 700s than in the rest of England. They were the first kingdom to have a regal inscribed coinage, in the name of Aldfrith (685-705) O: +ALDFRIDUS R: "fantastic animal" facing left, tri-forked tail Then an odd thing happened, the coinage reverted to anonymous sceattas with no names on the coins, such as this one: O: bust facing right, cross R: two birds, one walking, one flying, cross This coin dates approximately from the 720s and has no mention of any king at all. It seems odd that this coinage would revert to the abstract sceatta type, once a literate regal type was established (a type that would persist, though later). Hard to believe they are from the same series, but all the currently available data indicates that they were coined in York and from this period. Then in the 740s-750s the inscribed regal sceatta with the fantastic creature was back: O: EOTBEREhTVſ. R: "fantastic animal" facing left The coinage remained literate, with the king's name upon it until the time of Aelfwald I (780s) or Aethelred I (790s), when moneyers started dropping their names on the reverse of the coins, eliminating the beast. O: +AEDILRED (central Rx) R: +CEOLBALD Over time, the silver degenerated into base copper/brass. The designs remained simplistic. The beast was then, for whatever reason, briefly revived in the 840s for Aethelred II by Leofthegn as illustrated above. I believe there is only one die known for the creature, so they must have been a very small coinage, with the possibility of some special purpose (presentation, etc) certainly something worth considering.
Although I've owned a few of these in the past, I have never really been "into them." That might be changing, I have been doing a bot of reading on them and looking up some of your old posts like this one. So a much belated thank you @Nap for posting this!
Thanks Aethelred. Hope you find some you enjoy. Definitely share them! Let me know if you have questions regarding ID or anything else, they can be a little tricky, especially the later blundered ones.
