ANGLO-SAXON, Anglo-Viking (Danish East Anglia). St. Edmund memorial coinage. Circa 895-918. AR Penny (19mm, 1.57 g, 4h). Mint in East Anglia (Ipswich?); Heming, moneyer. (horizontal S)CE ЄΛDMVN RI, large A / + HEMNC X REX E, short cross. Blunt, St. Edmund, obv. die 1; SCBI 9 (Ashmolean), 109 (same dies); BMC 428 (same dies); North 483; SCBC 960. Old cabinet toning, slightly wavy flan, some doubling on obverse. VF. Extremely rare variety.
From the Sidney W. Harl & Kenneth W. Harl Collection, purchased from J. Linzalone.
In 878, King Alfred the Great defeated the Viking Great Army at Edington. The Danish sea king Guthrum submitted to baptism and concluded the Treaty of Wedmore which defined the limits of the Danelaw. Those Danes settling in East Anglia struck coins in honor of the martyred King Edmund, whom they likely viewed as a protective spirit of their new homeland.
Since the discovery of the first example of this variety in the great 1840 Cuerdale Hoard, numismatists have speculated on the meaning of the unusual reverse legend. Rather than naming the moneyer, as is normal on this and most ninth century Viking and Saxon issues, this coin appears to name a king: Heming (Old English) or Hemmingr (Old Norse).
Blunt, in his analysis of the St. Edmund series, records seven examples from three obverse and two reverse dies. To this should be added coins naming “Hamin” with the title moneyer, of which this cataloger has found six examples from two obverse and three reverse dies. The dies of the REX group have significantly degraded legends, while the MON group are clearly better formed and engraved. Also of note, though of unknown significance, both obverse dies associated with the MON group exhibit pellet marks, a feature lacking on the three dies of the REX group.
Although no direct link has been found between the two groups, considering that the St. Edmund series as a whole exhibits a great amount of copying and corruption of the legends, the rare HEMNC REX variety should likely be considered a degeneration of the more standard HAMIN MON legend. Yet, while unlikely, the possibility that Heming was an otherwise-unknown Viking ruler in East Anglia cannot be fully eliminated. As Blunt notes, “Alfred, on his St. Edmund coins, placed his name on what one assumes to be the reverse and one must not be too ready to reject entirely the possibility that we have here the name of a Danish ruler” (p. 244).
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