
The coin was discovered by metal detectorist Morten Eek in a field near Utstein monastery. He and his fellow metal detector club members examined it on site and when they saw that one side was made of copper and had a dark dot in the center, they thought it was an old metal button which are common metal detector finds. It was put in a box with other buttons for later review.

Archaeologists at the Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger confirmed that it was indeed a coin but it had been modified by adding the copper plate. There are two small notches on the rim that may be wear and tear from where it was fitted with a chain or loop.
The visible side of the coin consists of a cross drawn with double lines and with semicircles or bowls at the ends of the cross arms. The bowls contain small dots. In the angles of the cross there are lines towards the middle which give the impression that there is a single cross under the double one.

Magnus Barefoot coins are very rare, with about 100 known, and very few of them were found in Norway. Of the 100 or so Magnus Barefoot coins, only four were known with the criss-cross on one side and a griffin on the other. The Utstein coin is the fifth one, and the first ever found in Norway. The die matches one of the ones found in Denmark.
* This article was originally published here








