Obverse:

HENRICVS REX. Facing crowned bust holding sceptre. Chin and whiskers made of small pellets, 7 pellets to crown.

Reverse:

ALEIN ON CARDV. Voided short cross with quatrefoil in each angle.

A small striking split otherwise about very fine, toned and very rare. Possibly struck from silver sourced from the 'Carlisle mines'. Same obverse die as Mass 954 and reverse as 952-3.

The moneyer ‘Alein’ is the French rendering of the name ‘Alanus’, identified in a record of a fine from September 1181 as 'Alanus Monetarius de Carleolio' (Alanus, moneyer of Carlisle). As well as being a moneyer, records also show that he later also held the farm (that is, the lease) of the silver and lead mines of Cumberland and Northumberland, linking him directly to both the region’s mining and minting activity, he held this lease until September 1198.

D. F. Allen believed that the Carlisle mint was set up to produce silver coins from these 'Carlisle mines' and that it may have operated without an exchange, striking new coins rather than re-coining earlier issues. However, M. Allen has shown that an exchange did exist at Carlisle later on, as indicated by a record in which Alanus’ son owed 30 marks for “de cambio de Carduil” (the exchange of Carlisle).

From the J. C. Rowell Collection [bt from us, March 2020 - ref D1322]

Ex J. Mattinson Collection

Ex J. Brand Collection [bt Baldwins 1963]

Ex W. Wells Collection

Published in:

M Allen. (1979) ‘The Carlisle and Durham mints in the short cross period’. British Numismatic Journal, Volume 49, Plate VII, Number 39 (This coin).