INGOT

Terminal of a Viking -period silver ingot.

Surface metal analysis conducted at the British Museum indicated an approximate silver content for the ingot terminal of 98%, the remainder being copper, gold and lead. This surface analysis is likely to give a slight overestimate of the silver content of the core metal, as corrosion alters the composition of the surface of the ingot by preferentially leaching out copper. The fragment weighs 21.66 grams.

The find consists of the terminal of a silver rectangular bar ingot of rectangular section with a rounded oblique end; it is half cut then broken across the other end; hacksilver, with six or seven testing nicks on the angles. Length, 21.8mm; width, 14.5mm; thickness, 10.5mm.

Viking silver ingots were probably used as bullion in trade and commercial transactions before the introduction of coinage and possibly also sometimes as stock pieces of precious metal for casting into jewellery. They date mainly from the late 9th/10th century - c. 875 - c. 1000. Similar examples can be found, for instance, in the well-known Viking silver hoard from Cuerdale, Lancashire, which was deposited around 905-910 (J. Graham-Campbell, 2011, The Cuerdale Hoard and related Viking-Age silver and gold from Britain and Ireland in the British Museum, London, British Museum Press, 73-84). M. Blackburn suggests that in Southern England, where there was an established Anglo-Saxon coinage, it seems more likely that they were used for casting into jewellery, etc. (TAR 2005/6, no. 84). The testing nicks are typical of ingots of the Viking period.

The ingot terminal from the South Cambridgeshire District area would therefore qualify as Treasure under two of the stipulated criteria of the Treasure Act: it is more than 300 years old and the precious metal content exceeds 10%.

B.M. Ager, Curator

Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory, The British Museum

20 February 2015