ANGLO-SAXON GOLD SHILLING WITH RUNIC INSCRIPTION DISCOVERED IN A FIELD IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE TO BE SOLD BY DIX NOONAN WEBB

It was on Monday, January 3, 2022 that 55-year-old drainage engineer, Mark Pallett, decided to search a stubble field, which he has been to many times before, with his Minelab Equinox 800 at Haslingfield in South Cambridgeshire.  After just 15 minutes of being on the field, Mark got a faint signal and digging down only four inches discovered what he thought was a small button with a cross in the centre. To start off with, he didn’t think that the coin was real, but upon turning it over he saw the image of a helmeted male bust and realised this was something very special. He was shaking so much, he couldn’t believe what he had found, showed it to his friends and put it safely in his pocket. Identified as a gold shilling or thrymsa dating from 650-70 AD, it is to be offered by Dix Noonan Webb in their auction of Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals on Tuesday & Wednesday, March 8 & 9, 2022 at their Mayfair saleroom (16 Bolton Street, London W1J 8BQ).  Measuring just 13 millimetres in diameter and weighing 1.3 grams, it is expected to fetch £8,000-10,000.

During his 38 years of detecting, father-of-three Mark, who lives in Brentwood in Essex, has concluded that his best finds always turn up in the first two weeks of January, and on this occasion he again knew he was about to find gold. As Mark says: “it’s almost like a voice in your head that tells you where to search!” Mark has a sixth sense in finding gold coins and has even used divining rods to dowse for them with great success.

As Nigel Mills, Consultant (Artefacts and Antiquities) at Dix Noonan Webb explains: “The design is based on an obsolete Roman coin of the emperor Crispus from the 4th century AD. The legend includes Runic text which translated into Latin is Delaiona (of Laiona) which may refer to the moneyer who struck the coin.”

He goes on: “Early Anglo Saxon Runes or Futhark (named after the first six letters) originate from Germanic peoples and were sometimes included alongside Latin text on coins  in Britain during the 7th century. The most famous discovery of thrymsas was at Sutton Hoo in the ship burial when 37 were found in 1939. Also the Crondall hoard found in 1828 contained 100 gold coins.”

He finishes: “The gold shilling is in extremely fine condition and centrally struck so you can read all the inscriptions. Only eight examples of this ‘Crispus’ type have been recorded on the Early Medieval Coins database at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.”