File:Nummi Saxonici Tab I Fig 20.jpg

Nummi_Saxonici_Tab_I_Fig_20.jpg (335 × 187 pixels, file size: 25 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Summary

Description
English: An early 7th-century gold tremissis minted in Merovingian France or Friesland by an otherwise unknown moneyer or petty king named Audulf, misrepresented as Figure 20 in the "Saxon" coins of Obadiah Walker's "Notes on the Saxon Coins" appended to Edmund Gibson's English edition of William Camden's Britannica, miscopied from a marginal illustration on page 310 of John Speed's History of Great Britaine... Speed misunderstood the coin as having been issued by the East Anglian king Ealdwulf of East Anglia. A 1606 note on the English coin by Fabri de Peiresc makes it clear that Speed's garbled inscription and misrepresentation of the coin as silver were mistakes and not the result of a coin type distinct from the 3 other surviving examples of this issue.

Whether Frankish or Frisian, the coin is a late example of the tremissis originally intended to represent ⅓ solidus. The tremissis is also described as a triens &c. in Frankish contexts and a thrymsa &c. in Anglo-Saxon English contexts. As such, this coin type is now usually described as an "Audulfus Frisia Triens".

Griegson notes this particular coin is AV 13 mm 1.34 g with a diademed bust facing right obverse and a cross potent on a triangular base and step reverse. The actual coin has an upper-case alpha (Α) under the cross's left arm and a lower-case omega (ω) under the cross's left arm, both connected upwards to create the appearance of a scale. Speed's engraving mistook these for a single vine, copied by subsequent printers and scholars until it was sometimes further mistaken for a snake. Speed's engraving turned the actual coin's 6-pointed star into a 5-pointed one; Walker and subsequent printings omitted it.

Obverse: AVDVLFI+VSPRISIN [AVDVLFI+VSFRISIN in Speed, AVDVLFVSFRISIA in De Peiresc & on the actual coin, Audulfus Frisia, generally understood as intending either "Audulf King in Frisia" or "Minted by Audulf the Frisian"]

Reverse: VICTVRIAADVLFO [idem in Speed, VICTVRIA AVDVLFO in De Peiresc & on the actual coin, intending VICTORIA AVDVLFO, generally understood as either commemorating "Victory by Audulf" over the Franks, some other local enemy, or paganism or as a partially garbled mimicking of earlier tremisses and solidi, particularly the CHLOTARII VICTVRIA issues of Clothar II]

Walker's (erroneous) note stated "20. The twentieth, is of Adulf or Aldulf, King of the East Angles, son of Ethelwald's brother; a very worthy and pious prince, as appears by the reverse; a great friend to venerable Bede: what Prisin means I know not. The reverse is remarkable, because his name is otherwise spelled than upon the coins." Speed's (also erroneous) note said "10 An Do. 664 ALdulfe, the eldest sonne of Ethelherd and Queene Hereswith, after the death of his vncle King Edelwald, obtained the Kingdome of the East-Angles, and therein raigned without any honour or honourable action by him performed: onely his name and time of his raigne, which was nineteene yeres, is left of him by Writers: and affordeth no further relation of vs here to be inserted, besides his Coine here set." William Clarke provided pages of discussion attempting to explain the meaning of the inscription garbled by these editions.

See Griegson, De Nederlandsche Bank, & Vanbrabant.
Date (1722 2nd ed.)
Source Britannia, Vol. I, "Notes on the Saxon Coins", Tabula I Nummi Saxonici, p. 135. (2nd ed.)
Author Obadiah Walker
Other versions

Licensing

This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domain

This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer.


You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States.
This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain".
This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details.
Annotations
InfoField
This image is annotated: View the annotations at Commons

Captions

Audulfus Frisia triens

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

image/jpeg

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current23:07, 10 December 2023Thumbnail for version as of 23:07, 10 December 2023335 × 187 (25 KB)LlywelynIIUploaded a work by Obadiah Walker from [https://www.exclassics.com/camden/camdenintro.htm ''Britannia'', Vol. I], [https://www.exclassics.com/camden/camden0022.htm "Notes on the Saxon Coins"], [https://www.exclassics.com/camden/illustrations/coins5.jpg Tabula I ''Nummi Saxoni'', p. 135]. ([https://archive.org/details/gri_33125011116247/page/n181/mode/2up 2nd ed.])) with UploadWizard

The following page uses this file: