Coins, Historical Medals and Antiquities

Harold I (1035-1040), Penny, Jewel Cross type, Lincoln, Mathan Balluc, nadan ballvc o lin, 1.12g/12h (Talvio L1b; Smart p.444; SCBI Stockholm 312; Mossop –; BEH –; N 802; S 1163). Flan creased, otherwise better than very fine and dark toned; the moneyer’s name very unusual and rare £1,200-£1,500

Found near Winston, Suffolk, June 2018 (PAS SF-45D6C1)

Veronica Smart discusses this moneyer (Matathan Balluc) in her article ‘Osulf Thein and others: Double Moneyers’ names on the Late Anglo-Saxon Coinage’ in SiLASC, presenting two possible interpretations for this figure’s byname. One, rather amusing, possibility is that the epithet relates to the OE bealluc or ‘testicle’. Alternatively, the byname may derive from the Celtic balach or ‘boy’. Smart viewed the latter as the more likely, given the Irish origin of the moneyer’s initial name, although that is not to say that Matathan’s contemporaries would have recognised its cosmopolitan origin.