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1 Penny Anonymous Long cross, two hands
| Issuer | Hiberno-Norse Kingdom of Dublin |
|---|---|
| Year | 1035-1060 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Penny (997-1205) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Crude bust of a ruler facing left in the Hiberno-Norse imitative style, derived from contemporary Anglo-Saxon penny prototypes. The head is diademed or helmeted with stylized parallel lines indicating hair or headgear, and a prominent nose and eye rendered in a schematic, degenerate manner typical of Dublin mint production. A sceptre or cross-tipped staff appears before the face, while a draped shoulder is suggested below. The entire effigy is enclosed within a beaded inner circle, surrounded by a continuous outer legend in the field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Dublin's moneyers of this period were copying English penny designs with deliberate looseness — the long cross types derive from Æthelred II and Cnut's issues, but local dies show increasingly schematic lettering and abstracted portraiture that drifted further from their prototypes with each generation of copying. The "two hands" variety is among the more distinctive local adaptations, with no direct English equivalent.
Dublin at this time was a Scandinavian trading port operating under Norse kingship while remaining commercially entangled with England. The coinage functioned primarily in mercantile exchange rather than royal taxation, which explains both its relatively low weight standard and the inconsistency of surviving specimens.