The Viking coin I found in a field near my town turned out to be real after all

I was digging a new garden bed on my property near York last spring and this little silver disc popped up. Took it to the local museum thinking it was a button or something, but the curator got real quiet. After 3 months of testing, they confirmed it was a late 9th century Viking penny. The detail on it was still sharp enough to see the king's name. Has anyone else stumbled onto something historic by accident and had it verified?

2 comments

2 Comments

finleybutler22d ago

Bet on it being real after all that time waiting. York's a hotspot for Viking stuff though, always turns up in people's gardens and building sites. My neighbor pulled a medieval buckle out of his tomato patch last summer, just laying there six inches down. The museum took nine months to get back to him about it. They probably had to check that penny against known coin hoards from the area, there's a big one they found near Harrogate in the 1800s that had similar ones.

susanm2221d ago

Nine months for a medieval buckle?" That's incredible, I can't believe it took them that long. But I suppose when you think about how many people are digging things up, the museums must be swamped.