Southern Danelaw, Viking Imitation of Alfred, Penny, Oxford style Orsnaforda

Anglo-Viking Coinage, Southern Danelaw (c.880-910), silver Penny, in imitation of Alfred the Great Oxford type, moneyer Bernwald, three-line inscription, ÆLFRED across centre, ORSNA above, EORDA below, outer beaded rim surrounding both sides, rev. three crosses in line at centre, BERNV above, ALD MO below, weight 1.36g (BMC type XVIII, 130; N.472; S.971). A few light nicks and marks, dark tone, good very fine for this rare issue.

In his Presidential address of 1970 reproduced in the British Numismatic Journal volume 39 of 1970 pages 196-7, Stewart Lyon spoke of the historical problems of Anglo-Saxon coinage and specifically of the number of imitative Osnaforda pieces all with the Bernwald moneyer name. Other academics at that time once associated the coins with a proposed attribution to Horsforth near Leeds, but to Stewart Lyon they were clearly associated with a Southern prototype (North 646/1) and of a similar southern style to a Bernwald moneyer piece of Edward the Elder and therefore concluded these coins are based on the Oxford mint pieces.

The obverse legend translates as "Oxford" and the reverse "Bernwald moneyer"

Provenance:

Ex Spink Numismatic Circular, March 1992, item 861.

Ex St Marys College, Oscott, Morton and Eden, 28^th November 2019, lot 385.
Ex Collection of an English Doctor, part one, Sovereign Rarities, London, March 2022.