British Museum Pays 350,000 Pounds For Coenwulf Coin

Link with photo of coin:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...rtaltop.html

Museum sets gold standard with coin purchase
(Filed: 08/02/2006)

The British Museum has paid more than £350,000 to acquire a 1,200-year-old Anglo Saxon gold coin.


The Coenwulf coin was found in 2001 and put up for sale last year

The museum paid £357,832 for the relic, making it the most expensive British coin purchased.

It depicts King Coenwulf of Mercia, who ruled Mercia and much of southern England in the early 9th century.

It was discovered by a man with a metal detector beside the River Ivel in Bedfordshire in 2001 and bought by an American collector.

When the owner put it up for sale, the Government put in place a temporary export ban in August last year in the hope it would be saved for the nation.

Arts charity The National Heritage Memorial Fund provided £225,000, while the remainder was paid by the Art Fund, the British Museum Friends, the Goldsmiths' Company, individual donors and the museum itself.

Weighing 4.25 grams and equivalent to the value of 30 silver pennies, it is believed to be the earliest example of a gold coin in the name of an English ruler intended as part of a circulating currency.

Gareth Williams, curator of the British Museum, said: "The Coenwulf gold coin is tremendously significant as a new source of information on Anglo-Saxon kingship in the early ninth century. We are delighted to have acquired this piece for the national collection."

NYTimes story:


Museum Buying Rare Coin to Keep It in Britain




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By MATTHEW HEALEY
Published: February 8, 2006

A rare 1,200-year-old Anglo-Saxon gold coin that was sold at auction to an American collector will not be leaving Britain after all.

The British government blocked the export of the coin last year, and the British Museum has raised the funds needed — more than $650,000 — to buy it back. The acquisition is to be announced today.

A treasure hunter discovered the coin in 2001 in Biggleswade, on the banks of the river Ivel about 60 miles north of London, using a metal detector. The gold penny, called a mancus, weighs about an eighth of an ounce and is slightly larger than an American penny.

The coin is highly desirable, according to numismatic experts. Besides being in remarkably good condition, it bears an exquisite portrait of Coenwulf, King of Mercia (796-821), the only depiction of him known on a gold coin. The reverse has a design inscribed "De Vico Lvndoniae," identifying the Anglo-Saxon settlement, now London, where it was minted. The coin's sale in October 2004 set a record price for a British coin. The buyer was Allan Davisson, a collector and dealer from Cold Spring, Minn. He paid a little over $400,000 at the time.

But Mr. Davisson was blocked from bringing his prize home. David Lammy, the British minister responsible for protecting cultural heritage, announced in August 2005 that based on the historic and artistic importance of the coin, he would give the British Museum time to raise extra funds to buy it back. The deadline was Feb. 2.

The British Museum was able to tap sources that included the National Heritage Memorial Fund, which is supported by lottery income, and is "very happy" with the outcome, according to Hannah Boulton, a museum spokeswoman.

The tug of war over this coin illustrates the workings of British law on antiquities. Considered more liberal than other countries, Britain allows those who find buried treasure to receive fair market value for it.

Mr. Davisson conceded in an interview in January, "I definitely thought this coin was worth more than I paid for it."

Although the British Museum did bid in the auction, its limited funds forced it to drop out. Mr. Davisson later resold the coin to an American collector for $650,000. The British government accepted the new, higher figure as the bona fide value that should be paid for the coin.

Ms. Boulton said there was no paradox in that Britain, which has refused to return famous antiquities like the Rosetta Stone to Egypt, is trying to block export of an item like the coin. "It's not a comparable situation," she said. "These items are all part of a wider world collection. Visitors to the British Museum can compare and contrast cultures from all civilizations — that is a concept worth defending."

Mr. Davisson confessed to having mixed feelings. "Emotionally, I wish I could bring the coin here, but intellectually, I know it belongs in the British Museum."



Earlier stories, photos:
https://goccf.com/t/2058