ANGLO-SAXON, Archbishops of Canterbury. Plegmund. 890-914. AR Penny (21mm, 1.41 g, 6h). Contemporary imitation of a Circumscription cross/Horizontal-Trefoil 1 (HT 1) type. Uncertain mint in East Anglia. Struck circa 918-924. + PLEGMV(ND) ΛRCICP, small cross pattée / ÆÐELV/LF M◊ in two lines; three crosses pattée between, trefoils above and below. SCBI 20 (Mack), 671 (this coin); BMC 79 (Plegmund); North 253 (Plegmund); SCBC 900 (Plegmund). Old collection toning. VF. Extremely rare.
From the Sidney W. Harl & Kenneth W. Harl Collection. Ex Numismatic Circular CVIII.3 (June 2000), no. 2293; L. Stack (Sotheby’s, 22 April 1999), lot 266; R.P. Mack Collection, no. 671 (not in Glendining’s sales).
Plegmund, Archbishop of Canterbury (890-914), a noted scholar, shared with King Alfred the Great a commitment to promoting letters and reorganizing ecclesiastical and monastic institutions severely disrupted by the Viking attacks.
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