English penny from London

A penny of King Æthelred II the Unready, struck in London (997–1003). The moneyer was Eadwold. The coin is called the Long Cross type because it has a long double cross reaching the perimeter text on the back with a dot in the middle. The inscription on the back indicates in which moneyer’s mint the coin was struck and where the mint was located: EΛDPOLD MO LVN (LUND, or London). The front shows the king in profile facing left, and the inscription reads Æthelred, King of England: ÆÐELRED REX ΛNG (or ANGLOX).

The penny is part of a hoard found in Anttila, Lieto, in 1897. Some 900 Viking Age coins and pieces of jewellery were found in a clay vessel containing birch bark. The majority of the coins in the hoard were German pennies, of which there were 773. There were 51 English coins and also some Danish, Scandinavian and Byzantine coins, for instance. The coins had been hidden sometime after 1060.