LONDON (AP) – When Malcolm Weale saw the tiny, dirt-covered object he’d unearthed in an English field, he knew it was something special.
In his hand was a silver penny minted during the reign of Guthrum, a Viking commander who converted and ruled eastern England in the ninth century as Athelstan II.
For Weale, finding the first silver coin minted by a Viking ruler in Britain was the pinnacle of decades of hunting with his metal detector in the fields and forests near his home in eastern England.
“I was shaking,” Weale said at the British Museum, where the coin was displayed on Tuesday alongside other items unearthed by amateur history hunters in 2023 and 2024. “I knew that it was a life-changing, incredible, historical find.
“I’d watched the series Vikings on Netflix, and about a week later I’ve got the Guthrum penny in my hand,” he said.
The thrill of finding fragments of history beneath our feet drives detectorists like 54-year-old Weale, who was introduced to the pastime at the age of seven and “was hooked”.
His find was on show as the museum released its annual report on the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a government-funded project that records thousands of archaeological discoveries made by the public each year.
The coin sat alongside a set of 3,000-year-old bronze metalworkers’ tools, a seventh-century gold and garnet necklace, and a gold signet ring with an intriguing link to Queen Elizabeth I.
They have been officially classed as “treasure” by a coroner, meaning they will be independently valued and offered to local museums.
Discoveries by detectorists, as well as beachcombers and mudlarkers – who search for items on riverbanks – shine new light into corners of British history. The necklace of glittering gold and garnet pendants found in Lincolnshire, central England, reveals the sophistication of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship, and is surprisingly global.
Archaeologist Helen Geake, who serves as a “finds liaison officer” for the antiquities programme, said that it was likely made in England – “English craftsmen were by far the best in Europe” – with garnets from Sri Lanka.
