Extremely Rare Hubearn Lunettes C Penny

429, Lot: 412. Estimate $2000. Sold for $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Kings of Wessex. Alfred the Great. 871-899. AR Penny (20mm, 1.17 g, 6h). Type I, Lunettes C variety (BMC i var. b). Southern Mercian mint; Hubearn, moneyer. Struck 871-circa 875. + AELBRED REX, small diademed bust right breaking inner circle / HVBEAR across central field; H M:O: ETA: in broken lunettes above and below. Lyons & MacKay, Lunettes –; SCBI –; North 627; SCBC 1057. VF, toned, porous. Extremely rare moneyer for a very rare type with broken lunettes on reverse.

The moneyer Hubearn is recorded by North for this coinage, but no specimen was traced by Lyons & MacKay in their 2008 corpus. The Lunettes C type is the rarest variety for the Type I coinage of Alfred, accounting for only 5% (10 coins) of the 197 pieces recorded by Lyons & MacKay.