Edward the Martyr, portrait Penny, Stamford Mint, moneyer Ogea

Edward the Martyr (975-978), silver portrait Penny, Stamford Mint, Moneyer Ogea, diademed and draped portrait left, linear circle and legend with outer beaded circle surrounding both sides, +EADPARD REX ANGLO, rev. small cross pattée, +OGEA M-O STANFORD, weight 1.29g (BMC I, 30; SCBI 27:1094 Lincolnshire; N.763; S.1142). Attractively toned, some raised die flaws or rust spots in obverse field, well struck with a nice bold artistic portrait, with a nice full mint reading, reverse a touch off-centre, practically extremely fine and rare.

According to the statistics in North, Stamford was the second most prolific mint town after York (15 moneyers) in England during the reign of Edward the Martyr with 14 moneyers working, which outnumbered Lincoln with 10 and London with only 7, with 35 mint towns in operation in total.

Edward born circa 961, the eldest son of Eadgar was only 14 when he ascended the throne, his mother having died when he was a youngster. He was crowned on the 18^th July 975, however famine and pestilence shortly broke out in the Kingdom, as well as pillaging of monasteries blighting the new reign. Edward's Stepmother Aethelfryth the third wife of Eadgar also favored her youngest surviving son Aethelred for the throne as being "born in the purple" of Eadgar's reign. An unfortunate accident at a Royal council meeting at Calne in Wiltshire in early 978 where an upper storey of a building collapsed killing many important people did not help matters, Dunstan narrowly surviving as he was standing on a beam that withstood the collapse. On the 18^th March 978 Edward was murdered near Corfe Castle in Dorset, the legend being that upon visiting his Stepmother, one of her attendants (or even herself) stabbed him as he leant down from his horse to grasp a drink. The horse bolted and he either died from his wound or from falling from the horse aged around 18. Buried in haste at nearby Wareham it was not long before miracles began to occur in connection to his body and he was later reinterred at Shaftesbury and sanctified as Edward the Martyr.

Stamford on the River Welland in Lincolnshire some 17 miles from Peterborough where the Viking garrison surrendered to Edward the Elder in 918. The Abbot of Medeshamstede (modern Peterborough) was granted one moneyer at Stamford in reign of Eadgar and some extremely rare Edward the Martyr and Aethelred II first small cross coins with an annulet may be associated with this issue. Later one die of Henry I with an annulet on the shoulder may also be associated with this minting right. A Norman castle was built prior to 1086 and later the town fell into the hands of Empress Matilda. In an 1153 siege the town surrendered to Henry of Anjou.

The legends translate on obverse as "Edward King of the English" and reverse "Ogea Moneyer of Stamford".

Provenance:

Ex Spink Numismatic Circular, September 1958, item 6128.

Ex Spink Numismatic Circular, July 1959, item 14944.

Ex H. R. Mossop Collection, purchased by B. A. Seaby, March 1966.

Ex Marvin Lessen, North York Moors Collection, part 2, 3^rd July 2019, lot 292.

Ex Collection of an English Doctor, part one, Sovereign Rarities, London, March 2022.