EARLY MEDIEVAL PENDANT

An fragment of a coin pendant of late Early-medieval date.The object has been made of a silver miliaresion of the Byzantine emperor Romanus III (AD1028-34), which has been gilded and mounted as a pendant by the addition of a ring, which is passed through a ribbed suspension loop riveted to the coin itself. Both the ring and the loop have also been gilded. The coin has previously been pierced for suspension, as there is a small hole immediately adjacent to the suspension loop. This apparently took place prior to the gilding of the coin, as the gilding seals the pieced hole. The coin has been mounted in such a way that the reverse design, showing a standing figure of the Virgin and child, is vertical, and the coin-pendant was probably intended as some sort of religious badge. This has parallels with Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman coin jewellery of the 11th century, which generally seems to show the reverse side with a cross, rather than the royal bust on the obverse.Although Byzantine coins of this period are rare as British finds, and this is in any case a comparatively rare type, coins of this type made their way to Scandinavia in the 1040s, where they influenced the design of coins