Item 1997/2 - Letter from Stewart Lyon with five attachments

6 items, paper

Letter from Stewart Lyon, in manuscript, dated 7 December 1997, with five attachments. In the letter, SL first refers, whether directly or indirectly, to the attachments, and then discusses further revelations about the suppressed hoard of King Cnut (r. 1016-1035), which suggest, among other things, that it included some 7000 coins (or more). The attachments consist in the following:
(a) manuscript note of IS on one page of lined paper, dated 1 December 1997, entitled "Notes on 'barred' dies", commenting on a paper of Mr [Robert Echlin Hugh] Grayburn. In his comments, IS lists a few references to gouged, cut or otherwise defaced dies and briefly discusses their significance, possible implications and geographical distribution. In conclusion, he recommends publication, possibly in [Spink's] Numismatic Circular, and asks whether Mr Lyon should see the paper, since "he could probably comment more authoritatively".
(b) copy of a letter from Stewart Lyon to Mr M[ark] P. Senior, in typescript, single page, dated 7 December 1997, in reference to "Mr Grayburn's note "Quats and bars – a preliminary study".
(c) copy of a letter from Stewart Lyon to Mr [Robert Echlin Hugh] Grayburn, in typescript, two pages, dated 7 December 1997, in which SL comments on Mr Grayburn's paper "Quats and bars – a preliminary study". SL observes that gouge marks "are a feature of a number reverse dies of the quatrefoil type of Cnut, most notably but not exclusively at the Stamford mint". He mentions his earlier work with Mark Blackburn on obverse die-cutting but notes that they made only passing reference to the reverse dies. He further stresses that all gouged dies were used to strike very light coins, which raises interesting questions, and then discusses a table of reverses with gouges that he has prepared specifically in response to the paper; see attachment (d). On page two, there is discussion of the coin of Ælfwold of Rochester in the context of occasional combinations of obverse and reverse dies associated with different mints being used on some coins.
(d) copy of the table of "Cnut quatrefoil: reverses with gouges etc., Hildebrand and SCBI, typescript, single page, prepared by "Stewart Lyon" and dated 7 December 1997.
(e) copy of R. Grayburn's "Quats and bars – a preliminary study", three pages, typescript, with photocopy of a manuscript table, single page, listing numbers of coins with gouged dies from the Stamford and Huntingdon mints, by moneyer; neither the paper nor table are dated.