Stephen (1135-1154), Bishop Henry, Penny, mm. cross pattée, crowned bust right with crozier and mullet in front, pellet in annulet precedes legend henricvs epc, n and s retrograde, rev. cross pattée with barred limbs on saltire fleury, stepha[n]e[r]vs· rex (?), ss and first e retrograde, 1.10g/2h (M 229a, same obv. die, rev. die unrecorded; N 934; S 1322). Two small rim chips between 9 and 10 o’clock, hairline crack at centre and weak in places, otherwise very fine and the best of the three known examples, excessively rare (£6,000-8,000)

Provenance:
Found near Scunthorpe, 2003.

Long attributed to Henry of Blois, a younger brother of King Stephen and Bishop of Winchester, this issue may have been that of Henry Murdac, Archbishop of York. For further background, see King Stephen and the Interdict of 1148 by Peter Seaby, BNJ 1980, pp.50-60, and Coinage and Currency by Mark Blackburn, in The Anarchy of King Stephen’s Reign, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994, pp.182-7. Illustrated on front cover