Viking Rarity

498858.

Sold For $3750

ANGLO-SAXON, Anglo-Viking (Hiberno-Norse Northumbria). ‘Eltangerht’. Circa 947-949. AR Penny (21.5mm, 1.24 g, 1h). Imitating an issue of Alfred the Great. Reinard, moneyer. + EΓ(inverted T):·A·NGERHT, small cross pattée / RERN/ART in two lines; three crosses pattée between, trefoils above and below. CTCE Group VIII, e (this coin); SCBI 34 (BM), 1264-5 (same dies); North 548/1; SCBC 1027A. Near VF, toned, small edge chip, slightly wavy flan. One of only two examples recorded in private hands.

Ex Nicholas Rhodes Collection. Possibly ex Lord Grantley Collection (Part III, Glendining, 22 March 1944), lot 1079 (part of).

Of similar style and appearance to the Two Line type of Eric Bloodaxe are six pennies in the name of ‘Eltangerht’ by the moneyer ‘Rrenart’. Brooke, reading the obverse legend backwards from R, attributed this type to the Viking king Regnald Guthfrithsson who briefly ruled York around 943-4. The authors of CTCE however concluded it was ‘possibly made without regular authority in or about the years 947-9 when Eric, Eadred and Anlaf were competing for power.’