Silver, 17.51 mm; 0.95 grams. BMC I, circa spring 1036 – 1038 A.D. Obverse: +HAR OLD REX around the diademed bust of King Harold I facing left, without inner circle. Reverse: +L:EOFPINE ON LVNDE, around a jeweled cross [coss composed of four ovals united at their bases by two circles enclosing a pellet], without inner circle. BMC I; Hild. A; S 1163. Edge nibble, otherwise good very fine. From an old English collection. Only seven coins recorded with the Early Medieval Corpus at the Fitzwilliam Museum [EMC] and the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles [SCBI] for the moneyer Leofwine at London, all except one are in European Museum’s and not available for sale.

Harold Harefoot (c. 1015–March 17, 1040) was King of England from 1035 to 1040. His cognomen "Harefoot" was for his speed, and the skill of his huntsmanship[1].He was the son of Canute the Great, King of England, Denmark, Norway, and some of the Kingdom of Sweden, through his handfast wife Aelgifu of Northampton. Though there was some scepticism he was really Canute's son.[2], this was probably just propaganda by the opponents of his kingship. Upon Canute's death (November 12, 1035), Harold's younger half-brother Harthacanute, the son of Canute and his queen, Emma of Normandy, was legitimate heir to the thrones of both the Danes and the English. He was, however, unable to travel to his coronation, because his Danish kingdom was under threat of invasion by King Magnus I of Norway and King Anund Jacob of Sweden. England's magnates[3] favoured the idea of installing Harold Harefoot temporarily as regent, due to the difficulty of Harthacanute's absence, and despite the opposition of Godwin, the Earl of Wessex, and the Queen, he eventually wore the crown. Harold survived an attempt to unseat him led by Alfred Aetheling and Edward the Confessor, Emma's sons by the long-dead Ethelred the Unready, in 1036. Harold died at Oxford on March 17, 1040,[2] just as Harthacanute was preparing an invasion force of Danes, and was buried at the abbey of Westminster[4]. His body was subsequently exhumed, beheaded, and thrown into a fen bordering the Thames when Harthacanute assumed the throne in June, 1040.[5] His supporters later rescued the body, to be buried in a church which was fittingly named St. Clement Danes.