An extremely rare silver penny of Stephen and his wife Matilda - who fought with his cousinthe Empress Matilda for the throne in the 12th Century - is to be offered by Internationalcoins, medals, banknotes and jewellery specialists Dix Noonan Webb in a live/onlineauction of British and World Coins on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 11am onwww.DNW.co.uk.

Discovered by metal detectorist Graeme Rushton on October 20, 2018 on the border of SouthYorkshire and Lincolnshire, using a Teknetics G2+ metal detector, the coin is one of only 25known specimens and is estimated to fetch upto £10,000.

Graeme who is 50-years-old and lives in South Cumbria, has been detecting since he was 8-years-old, and ten years ago, he decided to start his own shop called Unearthed, which sellsmetal detectors.

As Graeme explains: "It was only my second visit to the site which had just been ploughedand flattened. After about 45 minutes walking up a slight rise in the field, I got a signal, andafter digging down 5-6 inches, I uncovered the coin which at first I didn't recognise. It wasonly after showing pictures of it to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge that I realised howsignificant the discovery was."

The coin has on the obverse the legend "STIENS" with standing figures of Stephen andMatilda facing each other supporting a tall sceptre between them, while on the reverse is across fleury over cross pommee with various ornaments around. The coin was minted in Yorkin the early 1140s and is in very fine condition.

Stephen of Blois was the grandson of William I, and became King of England on December22, 1135 to his death in 1154. For almost all of the 19 years of his reign a civil war ragedwith his cousin Matilda, with the English Royalist Barons supporting him while the AngevinFrench supporters backed Matilda, who was the daughter of Henry I of England who hadnominated her as heir to the throne. Stephen however claimed that his uncle had changed hismind on his deathbed recognising Stephen as his successor.

The find-spot was not far from where the Battle of Lincoln took place in February 1141between Stephen and Matilda's half brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, Stephen wasdefeated, captured and imprisoned for six months in Bristol Castle before an exchangeenabled him to be released. In 1153, Stephen agreed to accept Matilda's son Henry as hisheir, thus ending the conflict which has become known as the Anarchy.

For more information, see:
https://www.dnw.co.uk/auctions/