Copper-alloy, 80 grams, 295 mm. Circa 5th-7th century AD. A cast copper-alloy dress-pin with long ribbed collars, large spherical bulb and conical finial with three lines of convergent billetting. The pin tapers gently to a rounded point. A small hole at the top of the bulb may have held the attachment loop for a chain. The pin was used as a showy dress and cloak fastener durin the Merovingian period in the southern Baltic. Reference: cf. Griciuviene, E. Ziemgaliai - The Semigallians, Latvian National Museum, 2005, item 438-9. Very fine condition. Provenance: from an old English collection.