Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 10

Archaeologists Unearth 1,000-Year-Old Ethelred Coin in Shetland as Erosion Probe Expands

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 10

Archaeologists Unearth 1,000-Year-Old Ethelred Coin in Shetland as Erosion Probe Expands

Q: What secrets of Viking raids or ancient trade routes does this rare 10th-century coin hold for the remote Shetland Islands?

The coin’s main secret is not a single dramatic story, but proof that Viking-age Shetland was tied into much wider North Sea networks than its remoteness suggests. The late 10th-century silver crux penny of King Ethelred II, dated to about AD 991–997, is the northernmost Anglo-Saxon coin yet found in the UK. Found in Norse-controlled Shetland, it shows that English silver reached the islands during a period when Viking raids on England were frequent and when the sea functioned as a major highway linking Britain, Scandinavia and the North Atlantic. Archaeologists say the coin likely arrived by one of two routes. It may reflect peaceful exchange: a trader, traveler or local community using English silver in long-distance commerce. That fits Shetland’s role as a “well-connected cosmopolitan community,” in Dr Elinor Graham’s words, with links across the British Isles. It may also represent conflict: booty from a Norse raid, or silver redistributed after tribute payments and plunder from Ethelred’s England, where large amounts of coin moved into Viking hands. What the coin cannot yet reveal is which of those paths it took. A single stray find rarely proves trade over raiding, or vice versa. Its real value is contextual. Combined with the only other known Anglo-Saxon coin from Shetland, at Old Scatness, it strengthens evidence that Shetland was not an isolated fringe but part of a connected Viking world where goods, wealth and people moved regularly over long distances.

2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 10

A rare Anglo-Saxon coin minted between 991 and 997 A.D. was uncovered in Nesting in Shetland, marking the northernmost find of its kind there.
The discovery came during an excavation of prehistoric and Iron Age remains threatened by coastal erosion, not from a search for medieval treasure.
Elinor Graham of the University of Aberdeen said the coin's lettering remained sharp and that it was "extremely rare" and unique in that archaeological context.
Researchers say the coin may have reached Viking-controlled Shetland through trade with Anglo-Saxon England or as loot from a Norse raid, offering clues to early medieval links.
Scotland's Treasure Trove Unit will decide whether the artifact goes to a museum; Graham hopes it will join the Shetland Museum and Archives.