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The Stamford and Peterborough Mints Canute

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The Stamford and Peterborough Mints Canute THE STAMFORD AND PETERBOROUGH MINTS By WILLIAM C. WELLS (Continued from vol. xxiv, p. I 09 ) CANUTE, A.D. IOI6-35 CANUTE, called the Great, was the younger son of Sweyn, King of Denmark, and Sigrid, widow of Eric the Victorious, King of Sweden. In his charters and upon his coins his name is written Cnut, and sometimes in his charters Knu'O. He is said to have urged his father to the invasion of England in IOI3.1 He sailed with his father and with him landed at Sandwich and thence went to Gainsborough, where Sweyn received the submission of all the Danish part of Eng­ land, including the Danish burh of Stamford. He attacked London, where he was repulsed. He then marched to Wallingford and thence to Bath, where the ealdormen and thegns of the west made peace with him. The submission of all Wessex completed the conquest of England and Sweyn was acknowledged "full king", 2 but no coins appear to have been issued in his name. Sweyn died in February IOI4. Florence of Worcester records a story which was believed by a majority of the English of the period, namely, that Sweyn hated the memory of St. Eadmund and scoffed at his reputation for sanctity. That at Gainsborough, as he was on horseback, surrounded by his army, St. Eadmund appeared to him and advanced upon him. Sweyn called for help, but the saint pierced him with his spear, he fell from his horse and died that night. A variant of the story is that Sweyn desecrated the tomb of St. Eadmund at St. Edmundsbury, and that the saint arose from his tomb and smote Sweyn with a fatal illness. The gifts which Canute afterwards made to St. Eadmund's monastery seems to indicate that he shared the common belief that his father's death was due to the vengeance of St. Eadmund. Sweyn's son Harold succeeded him in Denmark and the Danish fleet chose Canute to be King of England. lEthelred returned to England in the early part of IOI4, and having organized a large force, met Canute in Lindsey and forced him and his army to flee. Canute then returned to Denmark. In lOIS Canute organized a fresh army and a splendid fleet, and Earl Thurkil promised to join him with his ships. Canute again landed at Sandwich and thence he sailed westward and harried Dorset, Wilt­ shire, and Somerset, and before the end of the year all Wessex had submitted to him. In the early part of Ior6 Canute passed through I Ene. EmmqJ, i. 3. 2 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, sub anno 10I3. L The Stamford and Peterborough Mints the midlands, thence by Stamford and Nottingham to York. lEthelred was now dead and Canute sailed to Southampton where, at a meeting of the Witan, he was chosen king. Meanwhile Eadmund, called Iron­ side, son of lEthelred, was chosen by the Londoners as king. Eadmund organized a considerable force to oppose Canute. After several engagements the struggle ended in the battle of Assandune, probably Ashington in Essex, where, after a fierce battle lasting the whole day and part of the night, the English gave way and retreated. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that" all the flower of the English race was destroyed". Canute followed Eadmund to Gloucestershire, where they made terms. The two kings met on the island of Alney in the Severn, when the kingdom was divided, Eadmund taking the government of Wessex and Canute became king of the northern half of the country. Ead­ mund died a few weeks later, November 1016, and Canute was then formally chosen king of all England. A considerable quantity of English coin must have found its way to Scandinavia by way of taxation, for Hildebrand describes no less than 3,904 coins of Canute, of which 150 emanated from the Stam­ ford Mint. In the early part of Canute's reign, probably during the first year of his reign as sole king, before the country had become settled and before Canute and his advisers could give their attention to the ques­ tion of the coinage and decide upon a type for a general issue, dies were made and supplied to a few mints, and coins were struck from them. These coins were, apart from the name of Canute which was substituted for that of lEthelred, exact copies of coins of the last three substantive types of the latter reign, viz. Hawkins, 207, 203, and 205 respectively. It has been suggested that these coins consti­ tuted an unauthorized issue, a suggestion which the present writer feels unable to accept, especially in view of the" mule" coins com­ bining the obverse, or reverse, of these alleged" unauthorized" coins with the obverse, or reverse, of Canute's first substantive type which, in the present writer's opinion at least, shows that they were issued officially and from authorized mints. These" unauthorized" coins, of various types, are too few in number and issued from too few mints! to be considered separate substantive types. They appear to constitute a provisional coinage issued by the authority of some responsible fiscal body. In point of date it seems probable that, so far as the Stamford mint is concerned, the following coin is the earliest of these debatable pieces: Obverse. Bust to left in chain armour and wearing radiate helmet, &c., similar to lEthelred II, type Hawkins, 203 (see Fig. 25, ante). Reverse. Quadrilateral ornament with incurved sides, &c., similar to lEthelred II, type Hawkins, 203 (see Fig. 25, ante). I Bath, Lincoln, Norwich, Oxford, Rochester, Stamford, Shrewsbury, and York. The Stamford and Peterborough Mints 147 Hawkins, type III (Silver Coins, 1887 edition, p. 154); Hilde­ brand, type C. No. Obverse I Reverse Provenance, &c. I ~ CNVT REX ~f)VRVLF ON Sale by Sotheby and Wil- ST/\NF kinson, in 1862. Present location of the coin un- known. The foregoing appears to be, with the exception of a roughly executed copy, struck on a square flan, illustrated in Hildebrand, PI. VI, type C, the only known coin of this type bearing the name of Canute. It appeared in a sale at Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson's rooms in 1862, but I have been unsuccessful in my endeavour to trace its present location. Of the accuracy of the above description there can be little doubt, as the coin was examined by Samuel Sharp at the time of the sale. Many years ago I was accorded the privilege of looking through Sharp's notes for his paper on the Stamford Mint.! These notes included one of the above coin, which appeared to have been made at the time of the sale and from which I culled the foregoing descrip­ tion. This is the earliest Stamford coin upon which the name of the moneyer Thurulj appears. The next Stamford coin in chronological sequence is somewhat later in point of date than that previously described. It is one of the "mule" pieces mentioned above, combining the obverse of one of the "unauthorized" coins with the reverse of a coin of Canute's first substantive type. The specimen described by Hildebrand was found in Sweden. The coin in question may be described as follows: Obverse. Draped and filleted bust of the king to left, &c., similar to lEthelred II, type Hawkins, 205 (see Figs. 28-30, ante). Reverse. Over a quatrefoil with pellet at apex of each cusp, long cross voided, &c., similar to Canute's first substantive type (see Fig. 31). British Museum Catalogue, type IV, var. a; Ruding, PI. XXIII, fig. 8, but bust filleted instead of crowned; Hildebrand, type E, var. g. No. Obverse Reverse Provenance, &c. 2 ~[NVT REX ~ C7\j PLI Nj'MO Hildebrand, 3243. /\f\GLORV SjT /\N3 Bruun Call., Copenhagen, no. 859. = Montagu Call., lot 37, 11.5.96. I Num. ekron., 1869. 2 The transverse lines indicate where, on the obverse, the legend is intersected by the king's bust, and on the reverse where the legend is intersected by the arms of the cross. 3 In H ildebrand there is no attempt to differentiate between the various forms of A-A, /\, 7\, ~, A, &c.; in quoting from H ildebrand, the present writer invariably uses the simple form /\. The Stamford and Peterborough lVIints The reverse of this coin appears to have been struck from the same die as a coin in my collection, no. 18 on page 150 (see Fig. 31). This "mule" piece is the earliest Stamford coin upon which the name of the moneyer Capelin appears. In the reign of lEthelred II a moneyer Thorulf, Thurulf, was coining at York and at Leicester. I Moneyers were frequently interchanged between the mints of York, Lincoln, and Stamford, and it is probable that Thurulf was brought from York or from Leicester-the former for preference-to work at the Stamford Mint at the time that coin no. I , above, was issued. In the circumstances it would be anticipated that Thurulf would continue his coining activities into Canute's first substantive type (Hks. 212; Hildebrand, E), but no Stamford coin of that type by the moneyer Thurulf has been recorded; his name, however, reappears upon Stam­ ford coins of Canute, types II and III, Harold I, types I and II, Harthacnut, type II, and of Eadweard the Confessor, type VII (Hks. 221; Hildebrand, D), after which his name disappears from our coinage. Thurulf's name appears upon Lincoln coins of Canute, type IV (Hks. 20g; H ildebrand, I) ; after striking types II and III at Stamford, Thurulf appears to have gone t emporarily to the Lincoln Mint, where he struck type IV, subsequently returning to Stamford in time to issue coins of Harold's first type.
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