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Penny: CM.428-1999

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Ruler: Æthelred II (AD 978–1016)
Moneyer: Hild
Mint: Melton Mowbray

Entities

Categories

Description

This is only the third-known coin of this mint and it allows us to see a much fuller form of the mint name. Hitherto, when only MEÐ could be read, it was identified as the mint of the Abbey of Peterborough (Medehamstede), but this new coin shows that to be wrong. Meðeltun, now seen on the coin, is a classic Old English form of modern Middleton, Malton or Melton. The three surviving coins are linked by moneyers and style with Lincoln and Stamford, and so the mint is likely to be within the Five Boroughs, the most appropriate town being Melton Mobray, Leics. This coin is highly important, not merely for identifying a new Anglo-Saxon mint, but for removing an otherwise exceptional attribution of a mint to the Abbey of Peterborough. [See Mark Blackburn, ‘Metheltun not Medeshamstede: an Anglo-Saxon mint at Melton Mowbray rather than Peterborough Abbey’, British Numismatic Journal 70 (2000), pp. 143-5]

Notes

History note: Found near Easton, Hampshire, 1999

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (1999-10-11) by Steele, A.

Dating

978 -

Components of the work

Object composed of silver Diameter 20.2 mm Die Axis 0 degrees Weight 1.14 g

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: +Ä5ELREDRED REX ãÑO (sic)
  • Location: Obverse
  • Type: Design
  • Text: +HILDE MO ME5ELTV
  • Location: Reverse
  • Type: Design

Identification numbers

Accession number: CM.428-1999
Primary reference Number: 217594
North: 766
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Monday 3 July 2017 Updated: Wednesday 17 January 2024 Last processed: Wednesday 17 January 2024

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Coins and Medals

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Penny" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/217594 Accessed: 2024-11-21 23:16:26

Citation for Wikipedia

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/217594 |title=Penny |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-21 23:16:26|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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