WESTMINSTER BRIDGE HOARD (deposited c.871 possibly during the Viking attack on London)

H1468 - The Kingdom of Mercia, Burgred (852-874), Penny, 1.00g., Lunette type, BMC Type D, moneyer Osmund, +BVRGRED REX, diademed bust right, rev., MON OSMVND ETA, in three lines in and between two unbroken lunettes (N.423; S.938), small edge chip, old cabinet toning with hard deposit in parts, great hoard provenance. WAS $1095 REDUCED $795 SOLD

Provenance:

William C. Boyd (1840-1906) Collection, not in the Baldwin's Auctions (42), 26 September 2005 (fragile ticket in his hand included).

Purchased by Boyd himself from the London dealer George Vieweg, August 1895.

Ex Westminster Bridge Hoard (deposited c.871), London, c.1895.

The Westminster Bridge Hoard, discovered in the river Thames under the present bridge, was acquired by the London coin dealer George Vieweg and sold accordingly to collectors. The hoard was not recorded when found and its discovery was only later realized by H. E. Pagan in 1965. The recovered and recorded portion is known to contain only Burgred Lunette pennies. Similar in nature to the much better known Waterloo Bridge Hoard, it can also be dated to c.871 and its deposition is very likely to be connected with the advance of the Viking Great Army and the sacking of London. The high proportion of local Mercian coins would seem to suggest that the hoard represents the wealth of an English inhabitant of London caught up in the Viking attack on the city. The site of the modern bridge at Westminster, which opened in 1862 and replaced an earlier bridge which opened in 1750, is near a known fording point on the Thames accessible at low tide. Situated on the north bank of the ford and known as Thorney Island to the Anglo-Saxons the settlement would be later known as Westminster, the site of Edward the Confessors Abbey Church, a later Medieval Royal Palace and the present Houses of Parliament. In c.872 when this hoard was deposited the site was occupied by a shrine to St. Peter.

References:

Checklist of Coin Hoards from the British Isles #68

Pagan, H. E., 1965. "Coinage in the age of Burgred", BNJ 34 (1965), 11-27.