Early Medieval English Coins from the Collection of William MacKay (Part 1)

Foreword

It is with great pride that we present here Part I of William MacKay’s Collection of Early Medieval English Coins. William will be well known to many readers given the conspicuous role he has played in British numismatics over the last two decades, through his authoring and co-authoring a series of important papers on Anglo-Saxon numismatics, his employment within Spink’s auction team, his serving as Director of the British Numismatic Society and, most recently, his work in preparing several volumes of the SCBI series dedicated to the collection of Scottish coins formed by the late Lord Stewartby. The coins offered within this catalogue were acquired across six decades; they have been selected in order to a give as complete a cross section of the Anglo-Saxon period as possible, whilst also reflecting the vendor’s personal specialisation.

No study of early medieval England can be considered comprehensive without thorough consideration of Anglo-Saxon money. Many of the processes which culminated in the unification of England can be traced back to the arrival of St Augustine and his missionaries in 597. A reassertion of Christianity...