Coenwulf, King of Mercia, portrait Penny, Canterbury, Diormod

Coenwulf (796-821), King of Mercia, silver Penny, portrait type, Canterbury group IIIA (c.810-815), moneyer Deormod, diademed portrait right extending to bottom of coin, linear circle surrounds head, legend and toothed border surrounding, +COENVVLF REX M, rev. struck en medaille, pellet at centre of pincer cross, wedges in each outer angle, legend and toothed border surrounding, +DIOMOD MONETA, weight 1.29g (cf. BMC 68-69; Naismith C39.1; B.L.S. 37; SCBI 2:337 Hunterian; N.347; S.916). Toned, a little uneven in shape, some light nicks and scuffs otherwise a bold to good very fine.

Blunt Lyon and Stewart (B.L.S.) writing in the British Numismatic Journal volume 32, 1963, pages 1-74, The Coinage of Southern England 796-840 list this coin as type 37 in group IIIA for Coenwulf.

Coenwulf became King of Mercia on the unexpected death of Ecgfrith the son of Offa in December 796, allegedly the son of Cuthbert descendent of Penda, and he soon earned a reputation as being unprincipled and ruthless. Early on Eadberht Praen had rebelled in Kent causing Archbishop Aethelheard to flee and Coenwulf therefore petitioned Pope Leo III to move the Archbishopric to London which was refused. Coenwulf invaded Kent in 798 and removed Eadberht and Aethelheard was restored as Archbishop of Canterbury, and the See remained under control for the next three decades, with Coenwulf's brother Cuthred as the King of Kent. Coenwulf entered a Treaty with Beorhtric of Wessex in 799 the latter clearly as the junior partner and Coenwulf removed or enforced vassalage of East Anglia around 800. He was soon styling himself as "Emperor" like Charlemagne on the continent, the first use of such a title by a British King. Other military clashes were quelled with Northumbria in 801 and the Welsh borders in 798 and later resumed in 820. Coenwulf also abandoned the Mercian See at Lichfield that Offa had set up with its one and now only Bishop, and instead attempted to set up a new Bishop for London but was refused by Rome. When Coenwulf took full control of Kent in 807 on the death of Cuthred he fell into dispute with Archbishop Wulfred over the church lands, who went to Rome to win Papal backing for the claims returning in 815 to take those lands, however Coenwulf expelled Wulfred by taking control of Canterbury and there was no Archbishop in situ for some six years, though Coenwulf did allow Wulfred back on the demand of Pope Paschal as long as he did not assert any authority.

It was whilst preparing for a second raid of Wales in 821 that Coenwulf died, his son Coenhelm having been recently murdered in the Clent Hills in some sort of family feud. Coenwulf was the last great King of Mercia as his overlord-ship of southern England subsequently collapsed within two years of his passing.

The obverse legend translates as "Coenwulf King of Mercia" and the reverse with moneyer name "Deormod Moneyer"

Provenance:

Ex Spink Coin Auction 13^th December 2011, lot 14.

Ex A.H. Baldwin, Fixed Price List, Summer 2012, item AS003.

Ex Roma Numismatics, Auction XX, 29^th October 2020, lot 779.

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