Gold coins and ingots from the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo

Frankish, early 7th century AD
From Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England

Dating a burial

One of the most famous groups of objects in the British Museum is the splendid collection of grave goods from the Anglo-Saxon ship-burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. This appears to be the burial of an important king, but there is little in the grave to make it clear who was buried there.

The burial can only be dated on the basis of the coins that were found there. There was a purse among the burial goods, which contained 37 gold coins, 3 coin-shaped blanks, and 2 small gold ingots. The presence of the coin-shaped blanks suggests that the number of coins was deliberately rounded up to 40. It is possible that the 40 coins were to pay the men who would row the ship into the 'Otherworld', while the ingots were to pay the steersmen.

The coins all come from the kingdom of the Merovingian Franks on the Continent, rather than any English kingdom, although coin production had started in Kent by this time. The latest coin dates from around AD 625, so the burial was probably only a few years later. Sutton Hoo was in the kingdom of East Anglia, and the coin dates suggest that it may be the burial of King Raedwald, who died around that time.

The coins on display in the British Museum are electrotype copies of the original coins, which are available for study at the Museum.

A.C. Evans, The Sutton Hoo ship burial, revised edition (London, The British Museum Press, 1994)

R.L.S. Bruce-Mitford, The Sutton Hoo ship burial-3, vol. 1 (London, 1975)