An amateur treasure hunter on the Isle of Man, Ireland, has discovered a “piggy bank” dating back nearly 1,000 years from the Viking Age, filled with numerous coins and silver pieces.
According to a statement from Manx National Heritage, a charity and heritage agency on the Isle of Man, the recently discovered “hoard” consists of 87 silver coins, 13 cut pieces, silver bracelets, and several artifacts found in the Irish Sea.
Kristin Bornholdt Collins, an independent researcher and numismatist based in New Hampshire who studies the Viking Age economy, noted that this “hoard” contains a significant amount of silver, similar to deposits from both the Isle of Man and the Irish Sea. She mentioned that this silver would be weighed and could be appraised for quality during transactions.
Coins found in the “piggy bank.”
Kath Giles, an amateur treasure hunter and former police officer, discovered this treasure using a metal detector in April. This marks Giles’ fourth historical discovery in three years, including a hoard in December 2020 consisting of Viking silver and gold jewelry.
After assessing the newly found “piggy bank,” Jayne Hughes, an investigator for the Isle of Man, declared it a “treasure.”
During the analysis, Bornholdt Collins confirmed that this hoard includes coins minted on the Isle of Man, Ireland, England, and what is now Germany.
Allison Fox, the archaeology curator at Manx National Heritage, stated: “Like our modern coins, many of the coins feature images of kings. The Irish and Manx coins bear the record of King Sihtric Silkbeard, the Norse king of Dublin from around 989 to 1036, while other coins feature King Cnut of England, Denmark, and Norway, King Aethelred II of England, and also a Holy Roman Emperor, Otto of Saxony.”
On the reverse side of some coins is a “long cross,” a symbol used as a guide for cutting coins when only half a coin was needed. Meanwhile, the silver coins were part of a flexible payment system, where value depended on weight and purity of silver. It is hoped that the coins and silver have a silver content exceeding 90%.
The dates on the coins indicate that “money” was added to the hoard similarly to how a “piggy bank” stores savings, particularly around the year 1035.
The earliest known hoards of precious metals from the Viking Age date back to the 950s, making this hoard one of the later deposits from that era. This hoard is the fourth Viking Age treasure discovered on the Isle of Man in the past 50 years.
