Kings of All England, Edward the Elder (899-924), Penny, Minster type, Wulfgar, small cross, eadvveard rex, rev. church building, vvlfgar and crosslet below, 1.45g/10h (CTCE 342f, this coin; N 667; S –). Extremely fine and toned, extremely rare £6,000-8,000

Provenance: R.W. Marsham-Townsend Collection, Sotheby Auction, 19-27 November 1888, lot 163; A.B. Richardson Collection, Sotheby Auction, 22 May 1895, lot 41; C.M. Crompton-Roberts Collection; SNC September-October 1921 (96458); G.C. Drabble Collection, Part I, Glendining Auction, 4-6 July 1939, lot 405; V.J.E. Ryan Collection, Part II, Glendining Auction, 22-4 January 1952, lot 752; Sir John Hanham Collection; bt Baldwin.

The opening decades of the tenth century saw a sudden and marked improvement in the style and execution of the English coinage. The busts are sometimes beautifully modelled and engraved, reminiscent of the best of contemporary Anglo-Saxon art, and unlike anything seen on the coinage since the portraits of Offa over one hundred years earlier. It is in the reverse types however that the die-engravers launch out in a series of unexpected and elaborate designs, buildings and city-gates, birds, flowers and plants, the likes of which are not to be found in the English series either before or since