GOLD PENNY OF ECGBERHT OFFERED

A highly important gold Penny of Ecgberht, King of the West Saxons (802-839) is expected to fetch £150,000-200,000 when it is offered in a sale of Coins and Historical Medals on Tuesday, September 7 & Wednesday, September 8, 2021 at international coins, medals, banknotes and jewellery specialists Dix Noonan Webb. This is the only late Anglo-Saxon gold coin in private hands; the other eight specimens are in institutions (the British Museum having seven and another being in Lausanne).

The Gold Penny, or Mancus of 30 Pence, was discovered by a metal detectorist at West Dean, on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border, in March 2020, and is unique. It was struck at a West Saxon mint, possibly Southampton or Winchester, and bears the King’s title, ECGBEORHT REX, around a monogram of the word SAXON.

As Peter Preston-Morley, Head of Coin Department at Dix Noonan Webb, commented: Full XRF and SEM analysis of this coin was performed in June 2021. The results show the use of high-purity gold, with only 2.8% silver and 0.6% copper at detectable levels. This composition is consistent with that of natural gold which has been neither refined nor artificially alloyed. Perhaps of more significance, the composition of the Ecgberht mancus falls within the same range as other medieval coins reported by Dr Gareth Williams and Dr Michael Cowell in 2009 (’Analysis of a gold mancus of Coenwulf of Mercia and other comparable coins’, in The British Museum Technical Research Bulletin 3: 31-6). Gold of such purity is particularly malleable and easy to strike but also more prone to wear and damage. None of the surface marks seem consistent with damage or alteration caused by attempts at mounting the coin for its use as a brooch or pendant.

Only eight other known gold coins were struck in England between c. 630 and 1257, and as the late Mark Blackburn (Keeper of Coins and Medals at Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) observed, the role of gold in England during the Viking age is a tantalising subject. These gold coins were, in all probability, produced for ceremonial or other high-status payments. It is believed that only on special occasions, perhaps for prestige or, as was the case in the time of Offa, religious events, were orders given for mancuses to be struck.

Two other silver pennies of this type, by the moneyer Bosa, were noted by Dr Rory Naismith in his standard work, published in 2010. One is in the British Museum; the other, on a larger flan, was listed for sale by Patrick Finn in 1999. A third penny, found at Fulbourn (Cambridgeshire) in 2011, is recorded and a fourth, found near Wimborne (Dorset) in February 2014, was offered in the Timeline auction, 3 December 2014. All coins are from different dies to the specimen in the auction in September.

As Dr Naismith states (The Coinage of Southern England 796-865, pp.43-4), the location of one or more West Saxon mints, which appear to have maintained a low level of production from the late 8th century until the 860s, remains a matter of debate among scholars. Southampton, pre-eminent in the 8th century, had fallen into decline by Ecgberht’s time, while Winchester had primarily been of ecclesiastical importance and was not developed as an urban centre until much later in the 9th century. This new coin is much neater than any of the silver coins.

Ecgberht died in 839, and in his will left land only to male members of his family, so that the estates should not be lost to the royal house through marriage. His wealth was no doubt one reason for his ability to purchase the support of the south-eastern church establishment. He was buried in Winchester, as were his son, Æthelwulf, his grandson, Alfred the Great, and his great-grandson, Edward the Elder.

Mr Preston-Morley finishes by saying: This coin probably represents a mancus: a gold denomination that first appeared in central and northern Italy, but was current in England already before the year 800. Mancuses would have been extremely valuable coins. Each had the buying power of 30 contemporary silver coins, and this at a time when a single Carolingian denarius would buy a dozen two-pound loaves of wheat bread: a single gold mancus would therefore have bought the equivalent of 360 loaves. Such high-value coins would not have been made in the normal course of minting. They probably stemmed from an act of royal or high-status largesse; one tenth-century English king's will specifically asked that 2,000 mancuses of gold (which could also be used to measure gold by weight) be taken and minted into mancuses. Unfortunately the volume of charters and other records from Ecgberht's reign is very small, so no obvious occasion for the minting of this coin can be identified; nor is it possible to date the coin to a more specific period within Ecgberht's reign. Its lettering and monogram are executed more neatly than on the dies of contemporary pennies.

For more information, see:
https://www.dnw.co.uk/

To read the complete article, see:
Treasure hunter finds PENNY worth £200,000: Metal detectorist is set for windfall after unearthing Anglo-Saxon gold coin dating back 1,200 years to the time of Wessex King Ecgberht (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9840003/Metal-detectorist-finds-200-000-gold-coin-Wiltshire-field.html)

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