Series QII -

Anglo-Saxon England, Secondary Series (710-760), Sceat, Series QII, Quadruped with erect ear and gaping jaws walking left, looking forward, crossed tail, angular foreleg, pellet-filled field, rev. Deer walking left, looking forward, long antlers and gaping jaws, short tail, angular foreleg, pellet-filled field, 1.05g, 90° (SL 64-80 plate coin; T&S pp. 492-5; Gannon 113, 116-7, 154-6, 191-2, Figs. 4.7c, 4.64b; MEC 8 Series Qb; North –; Spink 809).  Extremely rare.  An affinity with the Northumbrian Fantastic Beast type.

Images and selected text reproduced by kind permission of Spink and Son Ltd, London, auction 21000, The Tony Abramson Collection of Dark Age Coinage - Part I, March 18th 2021, lot #268.     Provenance: Dr Joseph Robinson, CNG Triton XXI, January 2018, lot 1361.

The iconic stag reverse of this bold variety parallels the contemporary ‘fantastic beast’ coinage of Northumbria. Both make use of similar embellishments, such as the triquetra. In Northumbria’s prolific coinage of Eadberht, this device is a privy mark in a well-controlled production system. Series Q is more exuberant – and a stark contrast to the conservative and slowly degenerating trading coinage of East Anglia, Series R.

In the context of the number of Northumbrian sites where a specimen of East Anglian Series Q has been found, it is worth quoting from Brian Hope-Taylor’s Yeavering: An Anglo-British Centre of Early Northumbria (London: HMSO.): ‘The idea of an East Anglian-Northumbrian political and cultural axis under Rædwald and Edwin is entirely in harmony with the historical facts: it could account for several remarkable points of correspondence between the decorative arts of Rendlesham and Lindisfarne.’ (1977, 321).