Coins and Historical Medals

Stephen (1135-1154), Eustace Fitzjohn, Penny, York, Phase 7, helmeted knight standing right, holding upright sword, · evstacivs +, rev. cross within quatrefoil, ebor · acit · deft, 1.25g/12h (Allen NC 2016, dies unlisted, cf. 119; cf. Mack 221-2; N 929a; S 1316). Good very fine, centrally struck with a detailed portrait and both legends fully legible, lightly toned, pleasing and extremely rare £10,000-£15,000

Provenance: Found at Thornton-le-Dale (N Yorkshire) (EMC 2020.0251) by Robert Brown on 15th August 2020, using an XP Deus metal detector on a stubble field. Shortly after arriving and walking twenty paces he got his first signal of the day, at a depth of just two inches in a clump of soil he saw the edge of a silver coin. As Rob explained “ We weren’t sure if it was Saxon or Viking but after putting a picture of it on social media we found out what it was”
Eustace Fitzjohn was the Lord of Malton and Knaresborough who served under King Henry I becoming a wealthy landowner through marriage and then supporting the Empress Matilda when she fought a civil war with her cousin Stephen in the period known as the anarchy in England. There is a fortification which dates from this conflict not far from the coins find spot.
Eustace became a powerful business magnate, was a Justician of the north and a great monastic patron, founding three religious houses.
In 1138, Eustace lost custody of Bamburgh Castle to Stephen and decided to join forces with David I of Scotland fighting with him against Stephen at the battle of the standard that year. In July 1157 Eustace was killed in Flintshire after being ambushed by the Welsh army.