Watch List notes:

Cynethryth, Queen of Mercia, Wife of Offa (coinage c.780-784), Portrait penny, Light Coinage, Canterbury, moneyer Eoba, large bust right with 'wide' eye, E?BA beside, rev., stylised M at centre with straight bar above, legend surrounding +CYNEðRYð REGINA, 1.08g (cf. Chick 145-7; N.339; S.909), apparently an unrecorded variety, small flan chip behind head, a little crystalline, but otherwise very fine to good very fine and rare. Relatively little is known regarding the origin of Queen Cynethryth of Mercia, the first English Queen to be portrayed on a coin. It is believed that she may have been a descendant of the Mercian King Penda (d.655) – owing to the etymological similarity of her naming and with those of Penda's wife and daughters (Cyneswise, Cyneburh and Cyneswith). She is known to have become Queen Consort to King Offa of Mercia, with her appearing in Royal charters from c.770 A.D. - after the birth of her first son, Ecgfrith. A lady of considerable importance, and known from contemporary court letters as 'controller of the Royal Household', she became the first English Queen to appear on coinage in England, in a style resembling that seen on the denarii of Faustina Senior, the wife of Antoninus Pius, in the 2nd century A.D. After the death of her husband King Offa in 796, she found solace in the Church and became Abbess of Cookham Monastery, and remained in charge of the church in Bedford where Offa was buried. She is known to have survived until at least 798 A.D.
Estimate: £4,500 - 5500