Coin struck at site of historic ‘war crime’ goes up for auction | UK News

A coin with a chilling message struck at the site of a historic war crime is about to go up for auction.

The penny was struck in 1066 in Romney in Kent where, six days after King Harold was killed in the Battle of Hastings, the new King William snuffed out a pocket of Anglo-Saxon resistance.

The town was torched and the new coin featured the chilling message ‘William rules as king’. It was made by Anglo-Saxon native Wulfmær on behalf of the new Norman king.

Gregory Edmund, Norman coin specialist at Auctioneers Spink, said: ‘There are few events so visceral to the British psyche than those related to the Norman conquest.

‘To handle a coin so closely dated to those fateful events at Hastings, but equally so inextricably connected to, by all contemporary accounts, a Norman “war crime” is truly chilling.

‘One must only wonder what that native moneyer Wulfmær was thinking as he struck this coin in the likeness of his new overlord, who had only just months before torched his home from the map.’

On October 20, 1066, just six days after the Battle of Hastings, William’s army arrived at Romney and defeated a pocket of Anglo-Saxon resistance before torching the town.

The Duke of Normandy then marched on Dover, seeking to secure the crossing point to the continent.

The news of Romney’s destruction ensured Dover surrendered without much resistance, even though it too would be ransacked.

However, William sought to compensate the inhabitants, noting the strategic advantage of the fortress.

No clemency is documented for Romney.

Soon after this event King William approved a series of coins to be produced across his new kingdom.

Romney was surprisingly selected, alongside other sites around the south-coast, to literally stamp his new authority.

Writing seven years later in 1073, chronicler William of Poitiers said Romney was singled out because it had slain a party of invading Norman soldiers after they had become separated from the larger invasion fleet.

He wrote: ‘After burying his own men and placing Hastings in the charge of an energetic castellan, he proceeded to Romney and there inflicted such punishment as he thought fit for the slaughter of his men, who had landed there by mistake; they had been attacked by the fierce people of the region, and scattered after heavy losses on both sides.

‘Then he went to Dover, where he heard that a great multitude had gathered because the place seemed impregnable.

‘But the English, terror-stricken at his approach, lost all confidence in the natural defences and fortifications of the place, and in the multitude of men.’

In June 1739, a great trove of Wulfmær-signed silver Pennies of William the Conqueror was found at Denge Marsh in Kent alongside earlier examples of his work from the reign of King Harold II.

It is believed that this coin was among the hoard discovered in that pasture field.

The coin is forecast for sale at London specialist Auctioneers Spink on December 12, where it is expected to sell for £2,000.

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