Kings of East Anglia Edmund AD 855-870 Silver Penny Alpha/Cross type

Kings of East Anglia Edmund AD 855-870 Silver Penny, Alpha/Cross type

Alpha / Cross with pellets in angles.

Moneyer SIGERED, uncertain mint

S954, 20mm, 1.23g. Little wear and some lustre to surfaces, likely struck with rusty dies.

This coin is part of the Fort collection, a carefully assembled group of English Anglo-Saxon pennies collected for their historical importance and condition. Coins were sourced from reputable dealers and auction houses over some 25 years. Each one comes with the collector’s label, along with any other previous tickets and are sure to sell quickly given their overall high grade and rarity. FortA

Edmund (854/855-869) – arguably the most famous of the East Anglian kings, Eadmund was crowned King on December 25^th of 854 or 855 at the age of just 14. His reign coincided with a period in which Scandinavian raids on England were becoming bigger and bolder, and indeed in 865 the so-called ‘Great Heathen Army’ would arrive in East Anglia itself. Although their depredations were averted through gifts of horses and safe passage to the north (where they proceeded to attack York and despoil Northumbria), in 869 they returned. Edmund confronted them in battle but was brutally killed, allegedly being beaten, shot with arrows and decapitated. Legend holds that his followers were guided to his corpse by a ghostly wolf, which shouted ‘here, here!’ Viewed as a martyr due to his refusal to accept paganism, his body was venerated and transported to the settlement of Beadoriceworth (Bury St Edmunds) which would undergo a meteoric rise in precedence due to the popularity of his saintly cult and become one of England’s major religious centres. Such was his veneration that even today there are some who see him as a more suitable patron saint of England than St George!