British museum buys rare gold coin
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Museum's £350,000 deal for coin
The coin was found in Bedfordshire
A gold coin dating to Anglo-Saxon times has been bought by the British Museum for more than £350,000.
The deal by the central London museum makes it the most expensive British coin ever purchased.
It depicts King Coenwulf of Mercia, who ruled Mercia and much of southern England, in the early 9th Century.
A metal detector enthusiast found it next to the River Ivel in Bedfordshire in 2001, and it was later bought by a US collector.
When the owner put it up for sale last year, the Government put a temporary export ban in place hoping it would be saved for the nation.
The Coenwulf gold coin is tremendously significant as a new source of information on Anglo-Saxon kingship in the early ninth century
Gareth Williams, British Museum curator
Arts charity The National Art Collections Fund provided £225,000 of the £357,832 total cost.
British Museum curator Gareth Williams said they were "delighted" to have acquired the coin for the national collection.
"The Coenwulf gold coin is tremendously significant as a new source of information on Anglo-Saxon kingship in the early ninth century," he said.
Silver pennies
It is one of eight known gold coins - of which the museum now owns seven - which date back to the mid to late Saxon period.
Weighing 4.25 grams and equivalent to the value of 30 silver pennies, it is thought to be the earliest example of a gold coin in the name of an English ruler intended as part of a circulating currency.
Coenwulf ruled from 796-821 and was the most powerful single ruler in Britain at that time.
His kingdom stretched from the Thames in the south to the Humber in the north, and to the Welsh border.
The coin will go on display at the British Museum from Thursday.
The coin was found in Bedfordshire
A gold coin dating to Anglo-Saxon times has been bought by the British Museum for more than £350,000.
The deal by the central London museum makes it the most expensive British coin ever purchased.
It depicts King Coenwulf of Mercia, who ruled Mercia and much of southern England, in the early 9th Century.
A metal detector enthusiast found it next to the River Ivel in Bedfordshire in 2001, and it was later bought by a US collector.
When the owner put it up for sale last year, the Government put a temporary export ban in place hoping it would be saved for the nation.
The Coenwulf gold coin is tremendously significant as a new source of information on Anglo-Saxon kingship in the early ninth century
Gareth Williams, British Museum curator
Arts charity The National Art Collections Fund provided £225,000 of the £357,832 total cost.
British Museum curator Gareth Williams said they were "delighted" to have acquired the coin for the national collection.
"The Coenwulf gold coin is tremendously significant as a new source of information on Anglo-Saxon kingship in the early ninth century," he said.
Silver pennies
It is one of eight known gold coins - of which the museum now owns seven - which date back to the mid to late Saxon period.
Weighing 4.25 grams and equivalent to the value of 30 silver pennies, it is thought to be the earliest example of a gold coin in the name of an English ruler intended as part of a circulating currency.
Coenwulf ruled from 796-821 and was the most powerful single ruler in Britain at that time.
His kingdom stretched from the Thames in the south to the Humber in the north, and to the Welsh border.
The coin will go on display at the British Museum from Thursday.
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I must get me such a metal detector, I must, I must get me one...
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<< <i>Took them long enough to decide. The original buyer of the coin at auction could do nothing with the coin until the Museums decided if they were going to make an offer. >>
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The coin is stunning as well. How improbable that such a coin escaped the ravages of 13 centuries virtually unscathed.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
<< <i>Probably another of Dino's finds. He's amazing!
The coin is stunning as well. How improbable that such a coin escaped the ravages of 13 centuries virtually unscathed.
>>
The glory of noble metals.....
Allan should be pretty pleased with this sale.
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Coenwulf ruled for approximately 25 years and this is the only known piece of this type? [I am assuming the the other 7 peieces the BM has are either not of Coenwulf or not of this type.]
That means there has to be a whole lot more coinage from this era out there, eh??
I think I might buy a metal detector and go to Britain!!
Chicolini: Mint? No, no, I no like a mint. Uh - what other flavor you got?
2915th, that's exactly what crossed my mind too.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
Andy
PS
It's a beautiful coin.
Andy
PS
It's a beautiful coin.
<< <i>Coenwulf ruled from 796-821 and was the most powerful single ruler in Britain at that time.
Coenwulf ruled for approximately 25 years and this is the only known piece of this type? [I am assuming the the other 7 peieces the BM has are either not of Coenwulf or not of this type.]
That means there has to be a whole lot more coinage from this era out there, eh??
I think I might buy a metal detector and go to Britain!!
I wonder how long the gold coins were struck and how many were made.
Obscurum per obscurius
Collecting:
Conder tokens
19th & 20th Century coins from Great Britain and the Realm
There are some very interesting points in that article (from farthing's link).Besides the profit he made, there's this very important view,which I also share, that we don't have to own the coins for a lifetime in order to enjoy them.
<< <i>Davisson has no problem with that, and not just because of the "nice windfall" that came from selling the coin.
"It was mine for a while, and I was able to hold it and touch it -- carefully," he said. "When you're handling something that's 1,200 years old, you realize how short your own lifespan is. And truthfully, something this important should be in the British Museum. I couldn't have afforded to keep it anyway." >>
I also enjoyed this part :
<< <i>Davisson was a collector -- of stamps -- as a youth in Colorado.....
When he sold his stamps, he began collecting coins -- American at first, switching to British because they were cheaper. When he started, he said, he promised his wife, Marnie, that he wouldn't spend more than $50 a month.
"That lasted a couple months," he said, laughing.
>>
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Now Marnie is his business partner! The company is "Davissons."