Late Anglo-Saxon

Aethelred II, 978-1016. AR Penny, Agnus Dei type (Autumn 1009), Malmesbury, Ealdred. The Lamb of God with halo, cross behind, panel with AGN below, +ÆDELRED REX ANGLORVM, rev. the Holy Spirit as a dove, +EALDRED ON MALDMES. 1.77 g. Gooch, SNC Dec. 2007, p. 308 = Keynes & Naismith no.3 - this coin; N.776; S.1156 - this coin illustrated.
Peckmarked both sides nevertheless with excellent detail. Toned. VF. The rarest and most desirable of all late Anglo-Saxon coins.

Purchased from Spink December 2007.

Struck at a time of profound crisis for the English nation, threatened by invasion of the Viking army of Thorkel the Tall, the Agnus Dei type is remarkable for both its highly distincitve design and its great rarity. The abandonment of a royal portrait - which otherwise severed for every other coin type struck from the reform of Eadgar in 973 to the end of the Anglo-Saxon era - in favour of purely Christian iconography; the very small number of mints that issued the type, and the scant corpus of surviving specimens all point to a special commemorative or donative issue. Possibly it was connected to the a programme of mass prayer for divine intervention instituted by Archbishop Wulfstan. The Schneider specimen is the finest of less than 30 known examples of the Agnus Dei type in both museum and private collections.