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Witmen Tremissis: Bust and Trident (obverse); Cross Fourchée (reverse)

early 600s

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

The Crondall Hoard is a hoard of coins that was found in 1828 in the village of Crondall in the English county of Hampshire. It is believed to date to the seventh century and was studied by Dr. Carol Humphrey Vivian Sutherland (1908-1986), an English numismatist. He characterized this coin as being a close copy of the Witmen prototype, the most common type found in the hoard. Witmen, or his design, featuring a bust on one side and a cross on the other, seems to have been very popular and remained popular for many years. During this time however the portraits grew cruder and cruder, the legends became even more blundered, and the gold content fell lower and lower.

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  • Title: Witmen Tremissis: Bust and Trident (obverse); Cross Fourchée (reverse)
  • Date Created: early 600s
  • Physical Dimensions: Diameter: 1.1 cm (7/16 in.)
  • Provenance: Mrs. Emery May Holden Norweb (1895-1984), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Type: Coins
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.159
  • Medium: gold
  • Inscriptions: WITMEN MONITA
  • Fun Fact: The tremissis was a small solid gold coin of late antiquity and was a third of a solidus.
  • Department: Medieval Art
  • Culture: England, Anglo-Saxon, early 7th century
  • Credit Line: The Norweb Collection
  • Collection: MED - Numismatics
  • Accession Number: 1969.159
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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