A 'hoard' of Viking coins that's been discovered on the Isle of Man will be on display for the public to view at the Manx Museum from today (2 October).
Manx Radio's Chanelle Sukhoo spoke to one of the people that discovered the 36 silver coins, David O'Hare and the curator of archaeology at Manx National Heritage, Alison Fox.
Hi, I'm Chanel, one of the journalists at Meng's Radio. Welcome to the latest edition of Meng's Radio Newscast. So what we have here is our latest find of Viking Age treasure from the Isle of Man. This is a horde of silver coins and silver pennies that we know now at the time. These are from Ireland and from England and they were buried in around about AD 1065, 1070, so a thousand years ago. We do have quite a lot of Viking Age silver from the Isle of Man but any time something like this comes up it tells us more about that really significant period of Meng's history. These coins in particular form really good condition and they're their nice high quality silver and they've got some fantastic images of some of the kings of Ireland and England from the time as well so that they really love the objects in themselves. Oh perfect, in terms of the coins now are there, do we have there been a number of these kinds of finds in terms of these types of coins or are they the first of its kind or is it a bit more common? It's quite complex because it was quite a complex economy even back then on the island. These coins are not unique but there's a collection of these coins that we haven't had so many of from other hordes. So it gives us this indication of quite a mobile vibrant economy so we've got lots of coins from that were minted under the reign of Edward the Confessor in England but they were minted in lots of different coins around England, York, Hastings, Lincoln so although they're not the first of this type of coins from the Isle of Man all these things tell us something just a little bit more about that period. So David you made the discovery what went through your mind when you found these did you even know what you were looking at or how did it happen? Like I said it was in the field and we made this going up and down one side and I was hovering this side and nothing so I decided to go out come back in put me speed in the ground, walked over to a woman that says we're not finding much in here are we? Do we want to go somewhere else? And he says yeah we'll go somewhere else so that was not fun. I walked back to the machine positive things on next thing walks two paces dig it quite well it was a little lead pellet so you could think next I walked again two or three paces got the same sort of signal but a little bit quicker and another one dig that one dug it flip the side over and that little coin there came out one of them I think it's that one and then looking at it that's a normal coin because I see a little pointy hat on them and I'm going to end with the first and I'm looking at it I'm looking at it I'm looking at it never mind and I looked at the back of it well and I just think that we need them we'll see the little cross and what what it's not a normal coin because they don't come like that that's it's earlier so I'm looking around from the making it disappeared. I'm like where's Egon? I filled the hole and I changed them down the field and I'm like John Doug come back and go back and uh well you won't believe I found one in it in the end because what have you found I said well now look at that so we looked at the front of it and I said look at the back of it and he looked at the back of it and he said don't you that's a piking coin he says anything to do with that a bit you found I said oh I don't know it says because it's different so as it was I got it home and I added a little bit on the boot kit and the sphinx boot kit and I could see once close to it but there's just something different about that one and then next thing some lad put up on one of their hammer coin sites and with the confessor coins and I'm looking at it and I clicked on one of the coins and that's the same as the one I've got it was identical my wow so the phone I've told them so we went back a few days later went back to where I found that one put me here phones on don't have anything walked a few paces next thing bang I'm gonna get another hit I'm like whoa I picked it out of the ground like there's another one and we made it was over there he was digging the hole so if you're gonna hit that he says yes and it's a 10 on that on his machine it's a dig episode so then I jumped again at the two paces boom and another one like oh no what's happening here and then another one like no I can't happen and next thing we ended up in this area and like I said oh hell broke loose and there's like every signal was in the ground and it was like at this this whole field just all air he has come alive like that's like what you mean he's looking at everything in the ground and his pin point went on the blink so we've got one pin point there so I thought right oh yeah yeah I said I'll dig them I said you pin them I'll dig them and expect them so every time we move in the cottage there's another one there and there's another one there and then we look fragments here and throw coins there like whoa I'm like you know how many of you got each other well the five 10 50 and you just kept going up and up and up and then four hours later phone now listen up there and I said oh I think we found all the coins two group all the says Appleheads she went whoa kind of many yeah so we got brought them down that was it so and there they are what's been through your mind you know when you just received this call this call above these coins that were found it's always really exciting and I'm in a very very privileged position here really is curated archaeology the definers of you know the coins like this or all the other fantastic artifacts we have you know they're the first people to see these things since they were buried in the ground or lost or whatever and I'm the next person to see it so it's always really really exciting it you also have to sort of go into a little bit of curator mode as well so and you know I always say to you know the guys about metal detection and you know they know now to they find something and there's there's more dirt on the objects trying to resist the urge to clean them and that's exactly what John and David did you know it's brilliant they they were finding all these things that they knew were Viking Age coins and would be really exciting but they just resisted the urge to take that little bit of mud off and the reason we ask that is just sometimes that mud preserves perhaps just the remains of perhaps a container that they may have been buried in so once they come into the museum then my colleague Christopher Weeks our conservator can have a closer look at the objects and then we can do a bit of light cleaning and so it needs a lot of a lot of restraint we find it sometimes but it's always it's always the highlight of you know my day absolutely when I get a call like that what does it also show about the richness of the history on the island as well as what the island has to offer I mean there's been so many findings over the years and I'm sure there'll be so many more to come I think that that's one of the key things for me you know is we we keep we keep getting finds like this and it's not just that we're getting the numbers of finds it's the quality of the material and you know these coins were in really nice condition the details were really good on them and that tells us that a thousand years ago in the case of the Viking Age you know there was a very strong vibrant economy and a wealthy society in parts at least on the island we're a small place but we're right in the middle of this trading empire really that the Vikings had a thousand years ago and and you know it's evident that the Isle of Man was a hugely significant place for the wider Viking world and it's significant for us as well you know our autumnal that you know guides us through our everyday life our parliament you know that they had their origins at this time what you know when these coins were being used and were not being buried so it's you know it's a hugely significant illustration for the island of Manah perfect now David how long have you been going around with the metal detector for I'd say about 20 years is it a spot or hobby it's a hobby it's a hobby it's an addictive hobby trust me it is if you ever pick one up like because like I said you're going around and you don't know what you're gonna find it's like well I've been like I said don't do it for 20 years now all that about John's been doing it most probably a bit longer than me and uh well that's the end product isn't it mmm is this the first time that you've had to find like this them them coins yeah because they're like hen's teeth and things but um yeah well like John's been through it a couple of times with different things like but that's my first time anyway and do you foresee that you'll continue to do oh yeah oh yeah like you said it's addictive it just won't you get hooked on it that's it what's been some of your other signs uh I had Roman branches have I well I'm saying Roman dogs it could be Celtic I don't know that's about it really and I had to have a kind like nothing like that they're they're the earliest ones we've had well 11 hundred's 15 hundred 17 hundred's 16 hundred what was that and got we're just missing the norm and coins that weren't we here but I'm back to the next one hopefully so finds like this are the ones that are legally to connect treasure but artifacts are coming up from the other bank all the time and and it's largely the multi-texting community that find these these artifacts so um in the days found some um approaches that date to a good few hundred years earlier than these coins in the past and I'm really grateful for all the finders of these artifacts and the land owners as well because a lot of the time the um perhaps that the the artifacts with the letter of a profile perhaps and still are really important to help us illustrate the story of the Isle of Man and those come into the Monks National Collections here at the museum and so this is only part of the story but it's a really exciting part thank you for making it to the end of the Manks Radio newscast you are obviously someone with exquisite taste may I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manks Radio podcasts at your favorite podcast provider so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone thank you you [BLANK_AUDIO]
