Penny of Edgar

Tim Pickard asked me to identify this Anglo-Saxon coin and, if possible, let him have a valuation on it.

Tim’s find looks at first sight like a cut halfpenny but the rough edge points towards it being a broken penny. It’s a two line type of Eadgar, whose dates are AD 959 to 975 and the type is listed in the Standard Catalogue as number 1129. However, this specimen is a very unusual variety.

On the reverse, in two lines, is the name of the moneyer. However, only a couple of letters are visible so I can’t pin it down to a definite official. On the obverse +EADGA stands out and in the centre of the inner circle there should be a single cross but on this coin there is clearly two. They are positioned in such a way that on the missing piece there could have been another cross in line with the other two. After looking at images of a very high number of Eadgar two line type pennies I did not trace another example of this strange variety.

Valuation

The coin looks perfectly genuine and is obviously a rarity. It would grade better than Fine and would certainly be of interest to specialist collectors. Sadly, as a broken penny its commercial value would be a great deal less than it would have been had it been a whole coin. As it stands, a pre-sale estimate would be unlikely to be any higher than £120-150.

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