Noonans Mayfair
Auction 351 3 Mar 2026
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Early Medieval English Coins from the Collection of William MacKay
Archbishops of Canterbury, Ceolnoth (833-70), Penny, Gp III, Floreate Cross phase, c. 864-65, struck at Canterbury by Biarnred, tonsured and draped facing bust, +ceolnoð-archiep, around beaded inner circle, rev. Floreate cross with leaf-shaped wedges in angles, +biarnred moneta, around beaded inner circle, 1.20g/6h (Naismith C218.2b, this coin; SCBI BM 822, same dies; N 247; S 894A). Well struck up on a broad flan of excellent metal, lightly toned over residual lustre, extremely fine and excessively rare thus £8,000-£12,000
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Provenance: Found near York, North Yorkshire c. 2006/7 [Acquired by W. MacKay 2019]
The handsome Floreate Cross coinage was struck during the final years of the reign of Æthelberht (858-65) in Canterbury, naming both the West Saxon king and that city's prelate, Ceolnoth. It represents a hugely ambitious but ultimately failed attempt to restore the coinage to standards seen during the early years of the ninth century. Analysis of the present coin shows it to be comprised of 81.85% silver, which stands far above other contemporary issues from Wessex and Mercia.
Later Anglo Saxon sources which discuss coinage reforms often give them a moral or religious dimension. Archbishop Wulfstan, for one, likened the restoration of the money to the renewal of the spiritual life of the kingdom. Within this context, the involvement of Ceolnoth in the Floreate coinage perhaps takes on an added significance.
Today Floreate Cross pennies are amongst the most difficult of all the ninth century types for collectors to acquire, particular in high grade. Perhaps only 25 specimens exist in total, the vast majority of which are in institutional collections. Of these, only three are of Archbishop Ceolnoth; an early variant housed in the Hunterian, a rather sorry fragment in the British Museum and the current coin, which must be fairly regarded as the most beautiful English ecclesiastical coin in private hands.
Archbishops of Canterbury, Ceolnoth (833-70), Penny, Gp III, Floreate Cross phase, c. 864-65, struck at Canterbury by Biarnred, tonsured and draped facing bust, +ceolnoð-archiep, around beaded inner circle, rev. Floreate cross with leaf-shaped wedges in angles, +biarnred moneta, around beaded inner circle, 1.20g/6h (Naismith C218.2b, this coin; SCBI BM 822, same dies; N 247; S 894A). Well struck up on a broad flan of excellent metal, lightly toned over residual lustre, extremely fine and excessively rare thus £8,000-£12,000
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Provenance: Found near York, North Yorkshire c. 2006/7 [Acquired by W. MacKay 2019]
The handsome Floreate Cross coinage was struck during the final years of the reign of Æthelberht (858-65) in Canterbury, naming both the West Saxon king and that city's prelate, Ceolnoth. It represents a hugely ambitious but ultimately failed attempt to restore the coinage to standards seen during the early years of the ninth century. Analysis of the present coin shows it to be comprised of 81.85% silver, which stands far above other contemporary issues from Wessex and Mercia.
Later Anglo Saxon sources which discuss coinage reforms often give them a moral or religious dimension. Archbishop Wulfstan, for one, likened the restoration of the money to the renewal of the spiritual life of the kingdom. Within this context, the involvement of Ceolnoth in the Floreate coinage perhaps takes on an added significance.
Today Floreate Cross pennies are amongst the most difficult of all the ninth century types for collectors to acquire, particular in high grade. Perhaps only 25 specimens exist in total, the vast majority of which are in institutional collections. Of these, only three are of Archbishop Ceolnoth; an early variant housed in the Hunterian, a rather sorry fragment in the British Museum and the current coin, which must be fairly regarded as the most beautiful English ecclesiastical coin in private hands.