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WMH-9367:  OF GREAT RARITY: Henry 1st Norman ROUND Hammered Silver HALFPENNY.  Obverse: facing uncrowned head of Henry 1st, hair made up of seven fleur-like ringlets; inner and outer beaded circles with legend surrounding:  +hENRIC REX.  Initial mark Cross with orbed base. Reverse:  +AILPINE ON PI - Ailwine of Winchester, recorded on the Fitzwilliam EMC/SCBI Corpus: 2002.0013 (only the fifth ever recorded Winchester halfpenny, the majority being permanently ensconced in the Fitzwilliam or other museums).  Central Cross Potent with groups of pellets in angles. Dark uneven tone with light porosity, fine and clear with distinctive style of head and fully readable.  Very little is known about this denomination - it doesn't even have a BMC number as yet.  There are two different halfpenny reverse types, one being of a type 9 penny reverse, the other this Cross Potent.  BMC ix pennies are c.1109 only and whilst we can't attribute that date to this coin (it being a Cross Potent reverse as opposed to the Cross Pattée) with any degree of certainty, we can probably assume that it would be very close.  Saying that, the only full penny for Winchester and AILPINE is a single BMC x example recorded on the EMC database.  At first glance, this would seem to make perfect sense as BMC x seemingly follows on from BMC ix.  However, the BMC numbering system was devised in 1916 and in recent years has been amended.  The date order is now:  1,2,3,4,5,6,9,7,8,11,10,12,13,14,15, meaning that we have one of the two halfpenny types at BMC ix (c.1109) and the Winchester / AILPINE full penny at BMC x (c.1117).  With an eight year gap, that begins to look far less likely.  Either the order of the Henry 1st BMC system needs further research or, and this is probably the more likely scenario, the BMC ix halfpenny is not tied to the BMC ix issue of pennies in c.1109, rather the halfpennies were struck closer to c.1117 and the BMC ix Cross Pattée reverse was simply resurrected, it being a good fit for a small coin.  Halfway through B.M.C. xi (c.1107) and continuing until B.M.C. xiv (c.1123), officials ordered that some coinage leaving the mint should be officially cut or nicked to expose the silver.  This was a device to give the public confidence that the coin in their hand was solid silver and not a plated forgery.  Some halfpennies have the official test cut, thereby firmly placing them within the period c.1107 - c.1123.  An extremely rare denomination; the only known example of this moneyer - Godwine A and Wigmund being the other examples.  S.R. 1277, North 872.  Of the greatest rarity - one of the only examples of a Winchester round halfpenny available to the public, and the icing on the cake - a completely unique moneyer for this excessively rare denomination.  £7,995

Provenance:

Found near Marlborough, Wiltshire, October 2001 (see The Searcher magazine, March 2002, p.41-3, this coin).

ex Dix Noonan & Webb, 19th June 2002, lot 135

ex Spink Auction 183, 26th September 2006, lot 19

ex Spink Auction, 26th September 2018, lot 370

ex HistoryInCoins stock (sold £7,950), 2024

 

Summary of extant halfpenny population:

The round Halfpenny denomination of King Henry 1st initially came to light only 76 years ago, when respected professional numismatist Peter Seaby exhibited a coin of Winchester by the moneyer Godwine A at the British Numismatic Society on 1 March 1950 (available to view on EMC database and North pl. 16, 36 and Spink Standard Catalogue, p. 135; coin now in the Fitzwilliam Museum). It took until 1989 for four more halfpence to emerge:

 

Sandwich, Aethelbold (reverse struck from a type IX Penny die - now in Fitzwilliam Museum)

Hereford, Airled (now in British Museum), both found together in spoil from Thames Exchange

Norwich(?), Thot, found in Norfolk (now in Fitzwilliam Museum)

York, Othbeorn, found near Newbury

 

The other mints and moneyers discovered since include examples of:

 

Oxford, Agelnoth

Wallingford, Osulf

Wilton, Ailward (all four in the Fitzwilliam Museum); Sandwich, Athelbold, of regular type, found at Little Mongeham, Kent, September 1992

Winchester, Wimund, ex Baldwin Auction 7, 2nd May 1996, lot 517 and now also in the Fitzwilliam Museum

Lincoln, uncertain moneyer (only half a coin), found Newark 2004

Lincoln, Aslakr, an unrecorded moneyer for type (obviously, seeing as how it's the only extant Lincoln round halfpenny!) being probably the best known example of all 22 known coins, with provenance as "found near Lincoln 2018"

Norwich, Thorstein, found Sutton Bridge 2009 (was for sale in the US at $15,000)

York, Forni, found north east Lincolnshire 2009

London, --DRED, a fragmentary coin found Kent 2013

London, Thorreaed, found Tilbury 2014

Canterbury, Winedaeg, found Wherwell - pierced in three places

as well as three uncertain pieces.

The EMC database shows twenty four examples recorded (including this coin) with around half either in museums or fragmentary.

 

WTH-9368:  Elizabeth 1st Early Hammered Silver Groat or Fourpence.  Initial mark Cross Crosslet, Tower (London) mint, bust 1F, second issue, S.R. 2556.  Second issue Martlet hammered groats were only struck for a total of 10 months (9th December 1560 to 24th October 1561) – interestingly, the Martlets and Cross Crosslets were the last hammered groats issued under her reign, even though Elizabeth reigned for a further 40+ years.  Attractively toned, very nice grade - a pleasing example of a very early Elizabeth 1st coin that as a denomination, wouldn't be seen again for the remainder of Elizabeth's reign.  James 1st had no groats, even though he issued halfgroats.  Indeed, it wasn't until the actual Civil War, some 80 years on from this coin, that we see groats make a reappearance.  £435