A Gold Shilling Located Near Norwich May Be Just a Fingernail in Size, but It Packs a Punch of History

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A metal detectorist working near Norwich, England, recently unearthed a small gold shilling that may be no larger than a fingernail, but it’s nevertheless imbued with quite a bit of history—and some distinct designs.

The small coin, discovered in the fall, has led coin expert Adrian Marsden of the Norfolk Historic Environment Service to ponder the unique emblems marking the coin, which he published his view on in an article for The Searcher.

As the coin expert notes, the coin is the first of its kind ever found. “It’s of a wholly new type, undoubtedly English—and East Anglian,” Marsden wrote in the article. Located in an area that has yielded other seventh-century coins, the decorated schilling is connected to a series of shillings he has seen before. But this one is still in a class on its own, thanks in part to the design that packs plenty in a small space.

“The obverse of this one has a man, with rather oversized head, performing what appears to be a jig with his legs crossed whilst placing a cross, held out in his left hand, over an odd design composed of three interlocked triangles,” Marsden wrote.

He said the Christian elements with the cross are obvious, inspired by the standard depiction of Christian emperors of the late Roman empire. The interlinked triangles are better known as a valknut, he said, a pagan design that has an uncertain meaning. They could be associated with the Scandinavian god Odin, who helped bring the dead to the afterlife, but the expert calls that “speculation,” since nobody is quite sure what the valknut—the word is a modern compound meaning knot of those fallen in battle—symbol really stands for.

The other side includes a cross-like design enclosed by a border of small pellets. The questions surrounding the symbolism point to a time where both Pagan and Christian images were used, Marsden says. The unique design could be a form of a cross or even a swastika, which at the time was likely a good luck symbol. The coin also had a poor attempt at a Latin-style inscription that Marsden said really didn’t amount to any language.

The coin was tested for purity, and all results rendered it with a gold content of 56 percent to 60 percent, in line with a modern-day wedding ring, giving the coin a pure look that would have likely been uncommon in the seventh century.

Under the nation’s updated Treasure Act, the coin will likely be displayed at a museum, possibly the Norwich Castle Museum.

“I think that this shilling does stand at the head of an East Anglian Royal coinage that quickly—as the kingdom became Christian—got rid of the valknut and retained the cross,” Marsden surmised about the provenance. “The new coin straddles two eras, the Pagan and the Christian.”