H1403 - Aethelstan (924-939), Silver Penny, 1.30g., Circumscription type, Irregular Issue

H1403 - Aethelstan (924-939), Silver Penny, 1.30g., Circumscription type, Irregular Issue, moneyer Remeci, +EÐELSTAN REX TO BR (Aethelstan king of all Britain), around cross pattée, rev., +REMECI MONIO, around cross pattée (Blunt 510 var; N.672; S.1093), frayed edge, otherwise very fine. WAS $1145 REDUCED $895 SOLD

This issue is important in that it proclaims Aethelstan's position as rex totius britanniae or king of all Britain (abbreviated as REX TO BRIT on his coins). He assumed this title following the incorporation of the Kingdom of York into his southern English realm and as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 926/27 records the submission of all the rulers in Britain to his overlordship:

"......and King Aethelstan took to the kingdom of Northumbria, and governed all the kings that were in this island: -- First, Howel, King of West-Wales; and Constantine, King of the Scots; and Owen, King of Monmouth; and Aldred, the son of Eadulf, of Bamburgh. And with covenants and oaths they ratified their agreement in the place called Emmet (modern day Eamont near Penrith, Cumbria), on the fourth day before the ides of July; and renounced all idolatry, and afterwards returned in peace."