England’s Norman Kings in Normandy

425, Lot: 698. Estimate $200. Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANCE, Provincial. Normandie (duché). Guillaume II le Conquérant (William the Conqueror). 1035-1087. AR Denier (18mm, 0.84 g, 3h). Rouen mint. Struck circa 1083-1087. + NORMANNIA, patriarchal cross; two pellets below / Church pediment, containing pellet, surmounted by cross; on each side, letters P A X within semicircles. Dumas Group C, pl. XX, 23; Legros 335; Duplessy, Féodales –; Poey d'Avant –; Roberts –. Near EF for type, typical crude strike. Very rare.

From the BRN Collection, purchased from Andy Singer, January 2012.

Legros connects this issue to William's PAXS type in England, c. 1083-1087, and the form of the legend, with the letters PAX within nearly circular lobes clearly has an affinity for the reverse style of William's issue. However, in addition to this PAXS type, there were three other PAX issues that were struck in relative proximity to it: Edward the Confessor struck his PACX type in 1042-1044, Harold II struck his PAX issue in 1066, and Henry I struck a PAX type in 1103. Of course, neither Edward or Harold could possibly have struck a Norman issue during their reign, but perhaps the Norman coinage was influenced by the English types? This issue is somewhat simplified by J.C. Moesgaard's analysis of the Norman coinage in light of numerous hoards (“Monnaies normandes dans les régions baltiques à l’époque Viking,” RN 161 [2005]). He was able to place the various nameless Norman coinages into general date ranges. He dates Dumas Group C, to which this PAX issue belongs, to c. 1075-1130. This dating excludes the possibility of a connection to the Anglo-Saxon issues of Edward and Harold. At the same time, Moesgaard's dating does not exclude a Norman issue analogous to the English issue of Henry I. While the type here is stylistically more similar to William's type (as noted above), his issue used the legend PAXS, not PAX, which is more similar to the issue of Henry. Nevertheless, the interpretation of the various PAX types by S. Keynes (“An interpretation of the Pacx, Pax and Paxs pennies,” Anglo-Saxon England 7 [1978]), as an invocation of Christ, shows that the addition of the C in Edward's PACX, and S in William's PAXS, were done for the purpose of symmetry in a four-part reverse formed by a long cross, which was not necessary on the three-letter PAX issues of Harold and Henry. Thus, the use of the three letter form on the Norman issue is predicated on the three-sided pediment around which they appear, and therefore is not necessarily reflective of the exact issue it may be associated with in the English coinage.