Canute Helmet type Penny, Lincoln mint, Aslac, cross behind head variety

Canute (1016-35), silver helmet type Penny (1024-30), Lincoln Mint, Moneyer Aslac, helmeted bust left with sceptre, cross in field behind, legend surrounding, +CNVT R EX AI, rev. pellet in double annulet at centre of voided short cross, broken annulet enclosing pellet in each angle, linear circles and legend surrounding, +ASLAC ON LINCO, weight 1.03g (Mossop plate XLII, 13ff; N.787; S.1158). Lightly toned, a pleasing extremely fine and scarce with the extra cross behind bust.

The legends translate as "Canute King" on obverse and on the reverse "Aslac of Lincoln."

The purpose of the cross symbol behind the head is still unknown today, as are other extra symbols that feature on some rarer coins of the later Anglo-Saxon period. There are very scant records of coinage that survive from this period of time and no record ventures as far as to mention symbolism on such coins. The Lincoln mint is quite prolific in producing coins with extra symbols, some of which were not known till the discovery of more recent hoards of coins, particularly the Cambridge Hoard of the early 1990s, where this coin likely emanates from.

For further reading of a survey of such symbolic coins in the reign of Canute, see the British Numismatic Journal Second Series Volume IX, 1927-28; article by H. Alexander Parsons "The Anglian Coins of Cnut the Great."

See also "The Lincoln Mint c.890-1279" by H. R. Mossop where the plate referenced above can be found.