The Conqueror at Hastings

Triton XXII, Lot: 1392. Estimate $5000. Sold for $11000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

NORMAN. William I 'the Conqueror'. 1066-1087. AR Penny (19mm, 1.31 g, 9h). Profile/Cross Fleurée type (BMC i). Hastings mint; Kolsveinn, moneyer. Struck 1066-1068. + PILLEMV REXI, crowned bust left; quatrefoil-tipped scepter before / + COLSPEGEN ON ÆI, cross fleurée, with pellet-in-annulet at center. SCBI 20 (Mack), 1347 (this coin); BMC 18 (same dies); North 839; SCBC 1250. EF, rich old tone, slight double strike on reverse. A very rare coin of great historical interest from the famous Mantagu Collection.

Ex Spink 246 (28 April 2017), lot 105; R. P. Mack Collection (Part I, Glendining, 18 November 1975), lot 219; H. Montagu Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 11 May 1896), lot 183; G.W.E. Bieber Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 13 May 1889), lot 2.

The Battle of Hastings, fought on 14 October 1066, is one of the decisive events in English history. The death of Harold II, felled famously by an arrow in the eye, marked the end of some 500 years Anglo-Saxon rule and civilization. On Christmas Day 1066, the victor, William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned in Westminster Abbey and by the 1070 the Norman conquest of England was effectively complete. In his new realm William found a highly efficient monetary system that he wisely retained. Kolsveinn, the Anglo-Saxon moneyer who struck this penny at Hastings for the Conqueror, previously struck coins for Edward the Confessor. As a man of considerable status and wealth Kolsveinn is likely to have been a first hand witness to the momentous events of 1066. He may well have fought in the battle.