Before the wheat grew in and made detecting impossible I had a final go at my favourite field here in Denmark. It has given several finds from the Migration Period and Viking Age so it’s always exciting to see what will turn up next.
This day I had changed to the 10” x 5” Double-D 18.75 kHz coil on my X-TERRA 70 to see if I had missed some small objects on earlier trips to the field. I had medieval coins in mind in particular since they had been missing so far even though there are strong indicators on medieval activity.
I headed for a corner that I hadn’t been able to detect for a while. A wet spring had left a pool of water and detecting in mud is no fun so I had waited and waited. Finally, now the soil was only moist. And after a short time a faint signal turned out to be a fragment of a medieval coin!
Well, at least a coin that would be considered medieval in its home country. Some studies at home and help from friends online showed that it most likely is a small flan penny minted under Edward the Confessor, who ruled England 1042-66. The fragment only weighs 0,58 grams so I sure was glad I changed the coil since I might have missed it otherwise.
The coin is gilded on both sides so it has been made into some sort of jewelry. Perhaps a coin badge since several of those have been found in England. Or maybe just a pendant. Either way that just make me the find even more interesting.
And then it’s always fun trying to imagine how it ended up on a field in Denmark. Was it brought home by one of the last Vikings living in England who left when William the Conqueror took power in 1066? Or was it a tradesman who had been on a short visit to England to sell something? Or an English clergyman who emigrated his home country after the Norman conquest and found a new home in Denmark where King Sweyn II had several parish churches builded and “imported” several clergies from England?
Jakob - Denmark
