In William A. Mackay's famous research on King Alfred the Great LondonMonogram coinage and its Danelaw imitations (British Numismatic Journal, volume89, 2019, pages 19-107, further referenced MacKay) the author providesclassification of all traceable first pennies and halfpennies issued by the Royal Mint inthe name of King Alfred the Great who united England and has taken its capital Cityof London in the year of 886 A.D. All traceable Danelaw imitations of the said coinagewas also classified in this paper. The author stated however that there will be other coins from older collections that will come to light later. London Monogram is a skillfully workedarrangement of the name Londonia designed by the Royal Mint first moneyers in theIX century, and Londonia penny is very frequently shown to the visitors of the RoyalMint Museum.

London Type B2 penny has obverse showing King Alfred the Great diademed bust ina neat tunic with concave shoulders (O2). On reverse there is London monogramand cross pattee on each side and the name of the moneyer - Tilevine above andbelow the monogram (R4). This type was known to W. Mackay from a single coin(MacKay B2 4 Pl. 3, 45) which first came to the market in 1918 at Sotheby's auctionselling the famous Carlyon-Britton collection. London Type B3 pennies are known inrelatively large variety, including the one with the same reverse R4 but differentportrait on obverse - O3 (MacKay B3 5 Pl. 3, 46).

In his research on London type B coins (MacKay p. 40) W. Mackay established thatO2 obverse die of London Type B2 was later replaced by the Royal Mint with theobverse O3 die of London Type B3, however the reverse die R4 survived theobverse transition thus becoming a link between London types B2 and B3. This isillustrated on Fig.1

Owing great respect to W. MacKay's research, the following question still remained:was Type B2 obverse O2 used only with the reverse R4? This questionwas hard to answer having a single coin of this type imaged at the time of MakKaywriting. However, since obverse dies of hammered coins were known to be agingslower than reverse dies (as they were usually placed at the bottom of the structureand not been struck with a hammer directly), it would be reasonable to think ofanother reverse dies, perhaps even totally previously unknown, which might havebeen used with the obverse O2.

whenMorton & Eden brought previously unimaged Alfred the Great London monogrampenny (fig. 2) to the market at their auction 129 (lot 18) as a part of the famousMotcomb Collection of British Coins (part III) sold with the old Seaby ticket (Fig 3)dating back to 1944. This coin appears to be the second known of London B2 typewith its reverse image unseen before November 2024. It was later on graded AU 53by NGC and its high resolution true vision image is already available athttps://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/6948283-001/53/

This coin was described by Morton & Eden as of London type B2 (O2/R4var). Itsreverse is similar to R4 however instead of cross pattee on each side of themonogram has 4 pellets to the left and 7 pellets to the right, diagonal bar to Aomitted.

So, the mystery is no longer a mystery and the answer to the London type B2reverse variety question is definitely YES.

We further researched on the provenance of this coin and discovered the following.

Mr. Steve Hill - a numismatic specialist and award winning author - discovered adescription matching the old Seaby ticket in question in Seaby's Coin and MedalBulletin No 349 (1947 vol., No 5), June 1947, page 239, inventory number 7008.Seaby did not provide a photograph of this coin, but only the following descriptionshown on fig. 4a and the price of £ 13/10/-. The details of the listing fully match theSeaby ticket on Fig.3 including the price, the Seaby inventory number and WorldWar II period it was acquired by Seaby. Unfortunately Seaby records of that periodhave not survived and we might never know which collection it came from to Seabyback in 1944.

Possibly an even earlier publication of this coin was found by Mr. LeonardAugsburger in Seaby Coin and Medal List No 335 (1944 January-December) ,3822 also without photo, and the description shown on fig. 4b priced at £12/10/-.

It is interesting that only R2 reverse of London types B2 and B3 was known topresent the moneyer's name Televine (sometimes referenced as Tilewine)interrupted above the monogram and continued below the monogram - MON. Also, only O2 is known to have a cross where the name of the King is interrupted - ALFRX EDRE. The newly photographed coin has both of those unique details as described in 1947 and 1944 listings and therefore we suspect that both Seaby publications possibly relate to the same coin in question. The prices shown on 1944 and 1947 publicationsare different, however Seaby warned its customers in advance that the prices to beshown in their Standard Catalogue of the Coins of Great Britain and Ireland of 1947will be higher than those in the catalogue of 1945 , which explains why the 1947 price of this coin was higher than that in1944.

Both Seaby publications did not publish the photos, which explains why W. MacKaywas unable to attribute this coin to any London Monogram type even having hadaccess to those extremely rare Seaby publications.

It is amazing that this important coin - a piece of Anglo-Saxon history - hasbeen sitting quietly in the famous Motcomb collection for 75 years until itwas first published in Morton and Eden catalogue less than 6 months ago and veryrecently it's high resolution images appeared on NGC web site.

It is now an established fact therefore that London B2 pennies exist in 2 varieties -O2/R2 and previously unseen variety of O2/R2Var.

Still W. MacKay's assertion that that the only known link between London types B2and B3 is indeed the reverse die R2 remains correct as both dies, obverse O2 andreverse R2Var, appear to have retired during the London type B2 period.

At the same time shall be asked: since the R4var reverse die isnot known to have survived the transition from London type B2 to type B3, was itused prior to the reverse die R4 which has survived the transition? Today, knowingonly a pair of B2 type coins we don't have an answer to this. Having a highresolution image of the obverse of MacKay B2 4 Pl. 3, 45 would certainly help toanswer this question by assessing (to a certain degree of certainty) which one ofthe 2 coin's obverse die O2 was worn more, but we don't have access to suchimage. It may become available in the future, or more coins will be found, and thenthe London type B2 research will continue.