Copper-alloy, 5.65 grams, 24.90 mm. Late 9th century AD. A developed form of coin brooch, derived from earlier types imitating coins of Louis the Pious, this example shows its serial distance from the original in the degeneration of the design. The bust is shown wearing a diadem and drapery. Surrounding the bust is a series of regular marks forming a pseudo-inscription. Reference: Cook, B. and Williams, G. (eds.) Coinage and History in the North Sea World, c. AD 500-1200. Essays in Honour of Marion Archibald, Brill, 2006.This work includes a chapter by Dr. Kevin Leahy on Anglo-Saxon coin brooches, pp. 267-85. Leahy illustrates three similar brooches, dated to the 9th and 10th centuries, which he suggests were copied from either the gold coinage of Louis the Pious (814-840) or late Roman coinage. Published: Hammond, Brett. British Artefacts, volume 2 - Middle Saxon & Viking, Witham, 2010. An almost identical example was published in June 2008’s Treasure Hunting in an article by Leahy who states that only 36 examples of nummular brooches are known in their entirety. A very clear example in extremely fine condition.

A leading museum expert writes: "The general style item suggests that this dates from the 7th-9th centuries, but there is nothing sufficiently specific in the iconography of the portrait to provide a closer dating. We have been unable to decipher the lettering, which might be described as a pseudo-inscription."

Dr Kevin Leahy writes: "We poor souls working on objects sometimes envy the numismatists who can often date coins to within a few years; often we struggle to place things to within a century. There are, however, a few finds that combine both coins and objects, and so might give us a chance of dating them; these are Anglo-Saxon “nummular” or coin brooches. The Anglo Saxons wore coins as jewellery since their arrival in England. These usually consisted of perforated Roman coins that were worn as pendants. They are found in early Anglo-Saxon graves and it is fair to say that, if you get a coin with a hole through it, it is no longer a Roman coin but an Anglo-Saxon pendant. In spite of this early interest in coin jewellery it seems that the idea of using coins as brooches was introduced into England in the 9th Century. Coin brooches appear to [begin] in Germany with brooches based on coins of Louis the Pious and on Roman coins. These were made through the 9th and 10th centuries with increasingly disgusting copies. Some of the British finds are probable imports (or at least early copies), but often the inscriptions are so badly blundered that it is difficult to know what it was that was being copied."