Anglo Saxon and Norman pennies. Image credits: Wikimedia Commons
Metal detectorist Paul Coleman discovered a bundle of 5,248 silver pennies from King Cnut’s reign in December 2014, shortly before Christmas, at Lenborough near Buckingham. This became the biggest coin treasure under the Treasure Act 1996 and was shared as a reward between Paul Coleman, who discovered it, and the landowner of Lenborough. In February 2015, Rory Naismith, a historian, wrote on the Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic blog that the hoard had come to light on 21 December 2014, during a metal-detecting rally at Lenborough, Buckinghamshire. Gareth Williams’s preliminary report in Anglo-Saxon England, published by Cambridge University Press, counts 5,248 silver pennies wrapped in a sheet of lead. Country Life later mentioned Coleman’s discovery in a 22 November 2019 article by Carla Passino on treasure theft, which held up Lenborough as a find that was correctly handled. Art Fund’s acquisition record calls it the largest Saxon coin hoard recorded in Britain in more than 150 years. The first detailed account is Gareth Williams’s A hoard from the reign of Cnut from Buckinghamshire: a preliminary report, printed in volume 44 of Anglo-Saxon England , dated December 2015, a year after the find. It comprised 5,248 silver pennies, found at Lenborough in December 2014. Williams cannot date the burial precisely, but concludes it took place in the latter part of Cnut’s reign, between 1016 and 1035. One of them belongs to the period of King Æthelred II (978 to 1016), and the other one belongs to the time of King Cnut later in his reign (1016 to 1035). The significance of this finding comes from the fact that the make-up of the 5,248 silver pennies aids in identifying the exact time period during which the Lenborough hoard was buried. Also, it should be noted that a single specimen of this coin among 985 coins of Æthelred II makes this issue very rare indeed. This is a coin that was struck in Leicester by Æthelwig the moneyer and weighed 1.46 grams, as stated in the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Early Medieval Corpus. It is shown in Figure 7 in Williams’ study cited above.
The paper describes the find as one of the largest hoards of Anglo-Saxon coins ever discovered. Since the entire group was enclosed by lead wrappers, the study by Williams states that it is one deposit. Within it, the coins are divided into several groups. Williams adds that the hoard contains few coins of particular numismatic interest, with the Agnus Dei mule discussed below as one notable exception. Nevertheless, it can shed light on how late Anglo-Saxon coinage was administered during Cnut’s reign. This coin is identified in their research as the twenty-third specimen made using the Agnus Dei dies. This is also the second Agnus Dei mule which bears a reverse design of the Last Small Cross. Before Lenborough, there had been only three finds of Agnus Dei pennies in England, thus making this find the first hoard to include such a specimen. It has the same dies as the only known coin of Æthelwig and adds up to four known coins of Leicester.
