★ Recorded on EMC ★

England. Norman, Stephen AR Penny. 1135-1154. York mint. Local and irregular issues of the Civil War. 'Ornamental' Group, Flag type. Recorded on EMC

England. Norman, Stephen AR Penny. 1135-1154. York mint. Local and irregular issues of the Civil War. 'Ornamental' Group, Flag type. ✠ STIEP-E-N, crowned and draped bust to right, holding staff with flag or 'triple banner' in right hand; star to right of banner / Legend with ornaments, cross moline, lis in quarters. North 919; SCBC 1313. 1.03gr, 19mm, 12h. Very Fine. Very rare.

Found near York, Yorkshire, UK, in the 1980s.Recorded by the Corpus of Early Medieval Coin Finds of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridgeshire, with reference no. EMC 2024.0424.

From Martin Allen, The York Local Coinage of the Reign of Stephen (1135-54) in NC 2016, vol. 176, p.287-8: Mack adopted Packe's suggestion that the flag refers to the standard carried into battle at Northallerton in August 1138 by the army raised on Stephen's behalf by Archbishop Thurstan of York to fight David I of Scotland (1124-53), and that it was issued soon after the victorious conclusion of this Battle of the Standard, although Brooke had reserved judgement on this attribution. Boon offered an alternative interpretation of the Flag type, suggesting that it was probably based upon Stephen's seal (in use from 1139 to the end of the reign in 1154), which depicts a mounted figure of Stephen carrying a banner (gonfalon). The obverse (majesty side) seal has a star beside the king's head, and this is a motif also found on the Flag to the right of the flag. Seaby argued that the banner on York coins of the Flag Standard types is a papal gonfalon, of a kind sent by Pope Eugenius III (1145-53) to participants in the second Crusade of 1145-9, before the departure of the crusading armies and fleet in 1147. All of these interpretations of the Flag type are possible the York local coinage began in the mid-1140s, as Blackburn proposed.