Penny of Offa, King of Mercia (copy)

The detectorist who found this coin signed himself as John. He said it had been unearthed some time since and he wanted to know what it might be worth.

The coin appears to be a penny of Offa, King of Mercia. In three lines on the obverse is m +OFFA REX. The upper and lower sections are within lunettes. On the reverse, also in three lines, is NO (the N reversed and the O lozenge-shaped) EpELp (the two ps are meant to represent Ds, which translate as TH) and the L is upside down, the bottom line is a cross with a pellet in each angle. Therefore, the moneyer’s name is Ethelnoth. The reverse is similar to the obverse in that the upper and lower sections are within lunettes.

The standard reference work on pennies of Offa is The Coinage of Offa and His Contemporaries by Derek Chick. The coin under discussion is type 233. When Chick published his research in 2020 only one example was known of type 233. Therefore, John’s find would be a significant addition to the coinage of Offa.

Sadly, instead of being a genuine example of type 233, this ‘Offa penny’ is a copy. Trevor Ashmore produced dies for a range of Ancient British, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and later hammered gold and silver coins. Some are fairly easy to spot but a number of then are close copies and have been known to fool even experienced numismatists. And, it is not particularly unusual for then to turn up as detecting finds. John’s find is an exact match of an illustration I have of an Ashmore copy of Offa type 233. Therefore, instead of being a wonderful collectors’ piece, this is a reminder that some things that look good can turn out to be the absolute opposite.

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