Harold II penny ID

[Ukstu 437]

Anyone figure the moneyer & mint on this one? WULF something? Maybe Wulfraed / Wulfred ? 

[Rob 3,002]

Beginning W and ending in D limits the options. There's one name in North that consistently crops up for Harold 2 - Wulfward/Wulfwerd and that ties with the visible legend. 4 mints listed - Stamford, London, Canterbury and Gloucester. Eliminate the first on the grounds of insufficient space to put ST in the chipped section and the last because there no Gloucester letters. That leaves Canterbury or London depending on how you interpret the small wedge plus III.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Rob

[Ukstu 437]

Thanks Rob

I saw Wulfward when i was looking through my J.J North copy of English hammered coinage. 

I wonder if the three III could be AN for Canterbury but missing the C which would of been where the chip is. 

It's a shame the Fitzwilliam Corpus is down as i bet there'd be a die match on there for it.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Ukstu

[Ukstu 437]

Thinks its + WULFWARD ON LND

The little wedge is likely the tail of a letter L. The last letter bleeds into the cross slightly but it's a D i think. 

[Rob 3,002]

In that case it's unligated ligated letters with the N diagonal missing and reads LVND.

Legends in this period up to the end of the century are a pain in the a**e with so many letters often abbreviated to vertical lines. e.g. like this PAXS penny reverse.

[Coinery 926]

7 minutes ago, Rob said:

 

WOW!

[Ukstu 437]

Cheers Rob

That's got to be it. I can usually read the mint and moneyers well on the Short cross stuff and Long cross issues and further on upto modern but i struggle with the Anglo Saxon & Norman stuff. 

I wish there was a decent guide listing all the mint signatures / abbreviations. 

The Fitzwilliam Corpus is my usual go to but it's not been offline for some time now.

Stu.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Ukstu

[Rob 3,002]

Make your own. The number of variations in mint and moneyer names is extensive with variations for most mints and names. Every year we discover new moneyers for a particular mint or a new type for a mint.

I've got a Cnut short cross of Lincoln by the moneyer PEDLOVS, or is it Waldos (as in North), or is it PEDLOS? It is thought that the actual name is WATHLAUSS, which is a Nordic name. Sometimes they doubled up on a letter to ensure there were no spaces in the legend to allow someone to change it. Chester is all over the place. Dorchester is represented by two moneyers for William I Sword type - GODPINE and OTER. The first uses DORC, DORE & DORI and the second DORECES, DORECST and DORECSTI on account of his shorter name. That's a lot of varieties for the scarcest issue from a small 2 moneyer mint! Overall, it's a mess.

[Ukstu 437]

Great advice. 

I think i will start doing that. It shouldn't be to difficult with some of them but i might need to research some of the more rarer mints. I might get some leads off the PAS website while the FWC is down.

I had noticed doubling on some letters on coins i own or have handled but did not realise what the reason was behind that , i assumed it was a die sinkers error. That's an eye opener for me that.  Thank you.

Stu. 

Edited November 23, 2023 by Ukstu