A gold coin with Christian and Odin imagery from Anglo-Saxon Norfolk

The BBC News website often reports on archaeological discoveries made by metal detectors in Norfolk - in part, no doubt, due to the assiduity of my old friend Dr Adrian Marsden the numismatic expert with the Norfolk Historic Environment Service. On this occasion he has a very significant coin to bring to wider attention.

Dated to 640 to 660 the gold coin was probably struck as a commemorative or trophy piece at a time when the traditional religious system of the Anglo Saxons was existing alongside the newly introduced Christian faith. The coin reflects this as it appears to show Oden brandishing a Cross but also a pagan symbol of three intersecting triangles.

As a relic of the Conversion era this discovery is fascinating and adds to our knowledge of that time of profound transition and cultural accommodation. It is good to know that the coin will hopefully go to the collection at the Castle Museum in Norwich.

The article about it, which has some excellent photographs, can be seen at One of a kind 7th Century Anglo-Saxon coin found in Norfolk field

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More on the Episcopal ring from Norfolk and other finds

I recently posted about the discovery and forthcoming sale of a fine late twelfth or early thirteenth century episcopal ring found in Norfolk in my article A medieval episcopal ring found in a Norfolk field

The ring reappeared on the Internet earlier this week as it was due to be auctioned, along with other antiquities found by metal detectorists as is reported in Medieval Ring Worn by an English Bishop Leads a Jewelry Auction

The article also discusses another item of jewellery that is due to be auctioned with it. In this instance it is a mourning ring, one of a set commissioned by the seventeenth century Lord Chief Justice Rainsford of the King’s Bench for his sisters in law. My eye lit on this because many years ago I knew one of his descendants and arranged to include a visit to his memorial in a church near Northampton on a study tour I was organising. The lady concerned died a while ago but she would, I am sure, have been fascinated by this discovery,

The auction has now taken place and the episcopal ring sold for a little more than was anticipated. As I wrote beforehand hope it ends up in a museum or similar collection that enables the public, as well as researchers, to see it. The report on the sale can be seen from BBC News at Medieval ring found by Norfolk detectorist fetches £19k

A medieval stocking filler for the man or woman who has everything?

Christmas shopping looms and as we are being deluged with online promotions for ‘Black Friday’ ( a decidedly un-English concept in my opinion ) and it occurs to me a  recently publicised late-medieval archeological find from near Kings Lynn in Norfolk may have once been, for all we know, a medieval stocking filler or ‘New Year Gift’ for a man or woman who had everything - well almost.

It is an ear scoop and nail cleaner which has been dated to the second half of the fourteenth century. Such items for personal grooming are known from other discoveries and survivals, but are equally the type of thing that gets lost in daily life, and forgotten in the popular memory.

The BBC News report about the find can be seen at Earwax scoop find in Norfolk gives insight into medieval hygiene

Given where it was found one wonders if it was once the property of a pilgrim to Walsingham or the Holy Rood of Bromholm, or of someone who knew Margery Kempe in what was then Bishop’s Lynn, or maybe somebody who knew the Pastons, or a present from them to Sir John Fastolf, or lost by an English soldier sailing from Lynn and going to fight with the Teutonic Knights against the pagan Lithuanians, or by someone accompanying King Henry IV’s daughter on her way to be Queen of Denmark, Sweden and Norway ……..almost certainly none of these possibilities given the probabilities of daily living, but a reminder that people had such things.

An Anglo-Saxon replica of a gold solidus of Emperor Honorius

My friend Adrian Marsden, who is the numismatist with the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, and often involved in identifying coins found by treasure hunters, was back on the BBC News website yesterday with an interesting find.

This was an Anglo-Saxon replica of a gold solidus issued by the Emperor Honorius. It is not a forged coin but a copy as it includes a suspension loop. Roman coins were clearly prized as personal jewellery or talismans in the centuries after the Western Empire disintegrated and this quite skilful copy in gold shows that there was a market for such copies.

The piece was found in a field at Attleborough in southern central Norfolk and not in connection with other items of specie. Whether it was lost, or has been moved over the centuries by ploughing, or if it had once been buried with its owner is unknown. It is however a further insight into the post-Roman world of Anglo-Saxon settlers and their  sense of Roman civilisation as it crumbled around them.

The illustrated article can be seen at Anglo-Saxon coin pendant found at Attleborough is 'very unusual'