★ Exceptional Svend II Estridsen Agnus Dei Penny ★

DENMARK. Svend II Estridsen. 1047-1075. AR Penny (18mm, 0.93 g, 8h). Agnus Dei type. Lund mint. O OI, agnus Dei, standing holding Gospels; (retrograde S)Λ • below; above stylized manus Dei / + II(quadrate C)I- I DIIIII, eagle standing facing, head right, wings spread. Hauberg 17 (same dies); Hede I –. Old cabinet tone. Near EF. Very rare.

From the G.W. Trow Collection. Ex A. Williams Collection (Part II, Spink 253, 3 July 2018), lot 340 (purchased from Spink, April 2001.

A remarkable instance of the Scandinavian imitation of English coins issues. The prototype for this coin was the excessively rare and exceptional Agnus Dei type struck by Aethelred II at a handful of English mints in circa 1009 AD. The dove of peace, a representation of the Holy Spirit, on the reverse of the English coin has become a more menacing eagle or raven on the Danish copy.