Livery Buttons and Famous Names

Livery buttons were made from polished, gilded or tinned brass and once adorned the jackets and uniforms of staff and retainers working for large households in the later 18th and 19th centuries. A common type of detecting find, they were designed to demonstrate status and wealth and bore distinctive crests derived from the heraldry of …more

A Zoomorphic Medieval Object from Surrey

A romanesque strap fitting from Surrey

From an art historical perspective the transition from the “Early Medieval” to the “High Medieval”, (broadly centred on the years following the Norman Conquest in England) shows a complex mixture of influences. This period contains the final gasp of Scandinavian Urnes and Ringerike styles co-existing with insular Anglo-Saxon developments of similar themes (the Winchester style) …more

A unique farthing token from the Thames

Trade token of Rotherhithe Wall

The third quarter of the 17th century saw a serious deficit of circulating copper small change caused in part by the English civil wars of the 1640s and the cessation of the royal (rose) farthing coinage of Charles I. With everyday transactions desperately in need of usable currency, local and regional traders, craftsmen, civic corporations …more

Commios or Tincomarus? An Iron Age coin quandry from Surrey

Of all the finds recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the one specific group which probably has the potential to contribute to archaeological and historical knowledge more than any other are Iron Age coins. These date from a period when the only extant written records were those of Roman writers who often viewed the peoples …more

A Medieval Floor Tile from Newark Priory, Surrey

The Portable Antiquities Scheme for the most part records metal finds, as a consequence of the ever-growing hobby of metal detecting. We do however frequently encounter interesting objects which are not metal and which also have really interesting stories to tell. This find, recorded on the PAS database as SUR-9A7323, is a fragment of a …more

A rare Medieval Continental Sterling Penny from Dorking, Surrey

This unusual silver medieval coin was found by metal detecting just to the north of Dorking, Surrey and has been recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database as SUR-A17568. It is an example of a type of coin known generically as a “continental sterling” penny, more specifically by the French name ‘au château brabançon‘. Its …more

A Rare Survival of a Medieval Textile Girdle from Betchworth, Surrey

Strap end with textile

Found in the environs of the Betchworth estate, Surrey and recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme as SUR-1CD215, this trapezoidal copper alloy plate was one of a pair which flanked a forked spacer element as part of a late Medieval strap end of composite type (Egan and Pritchard, 2002: p140-146). In of itself, this is …more

An Early Medieval Architectural Censer Cover from Guildford

A censer, also known as a thurible, was a container which was swung from chains to produce scented smoke during church services. It comprised a metal vessel containing incense, ignited with burning embers or charcoal, with an openwork cover which allowed the resulting smoke to disperse. These covers were often highly decorative objects, but today …more