Anglo-Saxon silver sceatta

Marcus Read sent in this coin to be identified and valued. It’s an Anglo-Saxon silver sceatta and a rather nice example of the type with good surfaces.

On the obverse, within a serpent circle, is a diademed head facing right. Within another serpent circle on the reverse is a cross with an annulet each side and above it is a bird facing right; in front of the bird is a cross pattee.

This sceatta is an example of series BII and is listed in the Standard Catalogue as number 777. Several minor varieties of this series are on record.

Valuation

A similar coin was sold at auction last September and the hammer price was £230. If anything the example found by Marcus is slightly better. Therefore, it could sell for around £250. However, the coin sold in September was part of a large collection of sceattas so competition could have been quite fierce. Leading on from this, to achieve a figure of £250 it might need more than one collector to force the price up to that amount.