NORMAN. William I 'the Conqueror'. 1066-1087. AR Penny (19mm,

NORMAN. William I 'the Conqueror'. 1066-1087. AR Penny (19mm, 1.25 g, 1h). Sword type (BMC vi). London mint; Godwine, moneyer. Struck circa 1077-1080. + PILLELM REXI, crowned facing bust, holding sword over right shoulder / + GODPINE ON LIIN, cross pattée; all over quadrilateral, with incurved sides and fleur in each quarter. Grierson, Coins of Medieval Europe 146; SCBI 16 (Norweb), 228 (same dies); BMC 420 var. (obv. legend; same rev. die); North 846; SCBC 1255. Toned. Good VF.


From the Richard A. Jourdan Collection of Medieval European Coins, purchased from Andy Singer, 2000. Ex Spink Numismatic Circular CVII.7 (September 1999), no. 3239; Spink Numismatic Circular LXXVI.4 (April 1968), no. 2827; R.C. Lockett Collection (English Part I, Glendining's, 6 June 1955), lot 939.

'In the early years after the Norman Conquest the weight [of the penny] seems to have stood at 22 grains, but in the mid 1080s it was fixed at 22 1/2 grains. This stability seems to have been the origin of the term sterling for the English penny, for steor was a Middle English word for 'fixed' or 'stable', and stability in weight was one of the most conspicuous features of English coinage in the last days of the eleventh century and for over two hundred years thereafter.' Grierson, p.72