ENGLAND: Stephen (1135-1154), AR penny (cross moline ‘Watford’ type), issued 1136-45. 1.15g, 20mm.
Obv: + STIEFNE RE :, bust right, crowned and diademed, holding sceptre in right hand
Rev: cross moline with fleur in each quadrant
S1278, North 873
From the Orfew collection, acquired from Hall’s Hammered Coins.
Decent portrait for the notoriously difficult Stephen; bent, flan crack, some edge damage.
Estimate: 200

“The Anarchy” was caused by Henry I dying without a male heir, with the nobility unwilling to accept his daughter Matilda as queen. Henry’s nephew Stephen stepped into the breach, but soon Matilda and her husband Geoffrey V Plantagenet invaded England to press her claim. The ensuing period of ruinous warfare was finally concluded with the Treaty of Wallingford of 1153, under whose terms Stephen would reign until his death, at which point Matilda and Geoffrey’s son Henry would inherit the throne. He did so a year later as Henry II, beginning the Angevin era.