LOT 1704

Anglo-Saxon Coins - Aethelred II - Cambridge / Eadsige - Late Transitional CRVX Penny 995-997 AD

Late transitional issue, variant B bust, without sceptre. Obv: profile diademed bust left with +ÆÐELRED REX ANGLORX legend with OR in monogram. Rev: short voided cross with letters C R V X in angles with +EDSIGE M-O GRANT legend for the moneyer Eadsige at Cambridge mint. Near extremely fine; tiny striking split at flan edge below bust. Unique; the moneyer and type variant (no sceptre) not previously recorded for Cambridge mint.(0.86 grams.).

Found near Tilbury, Essex, UK, 2014.

See Early Medieval Corpus, Cambridge, reference EMC 2014.0314 (this coin).

S. 1148 variant (no sceptre); N. 771 (see also notes on pp.161-162 and figure 5); see Stewartby, Dolley and others for discussion of this issue.

The CRVX issue of Aethelred II is closely associated with his Small Cross types and there has been considerable discussion in the pages of the British Numismatic Journal as to whether CRVX coins without a sceptre are a variant of the CRVX issue or are mules with obverses of the Small Cross type, together with the suggestions for the sequence of the types; this form of bust, without sceptre and with CRVX reverse has been assigned to the Late Transitional CRVX phase. The moneyer name Eadsige, although known at several other mints which struck CRVX coins, is not previously recorded at Cambridge and no Cambridge coin has been seen without the sceptre (whether as a Late Transitional CRVX or a mule).