As an Archaeologist based in Leicestershire who’s interested in coins and Viking age England, I had been a little disappointed that in 13 years as an FLO I had only recorded one Anglo-Viking coin (see LEIC-B230B8).
That changed late last year when I was shown a St Edmund memorial penny, minted in East Anglia by Vikings c. 895-910AD. The coins feature the often blundered inscription ‘SC EDMUND’ a dedication to the saint who was, ironically, martyred by the Vikings. I told the finder how rare his coin was and that he’d made my year (see LEIC-19C0DA ) .

But it turns out that these coins are like buses and within weeks I was shown another (see LEIC-B7F405). By this April I had the hat trick, with a third being found in the same district as the first (see LEIC-4FC58C).

Nationally the PAS has only recorded 34. Most were single finds from within the Danelaw, with one outlier from a hoard in Cumbria. The majority were lost within East Anglia, with a few in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and Staffordshire.
These coins add an important layer of evidence in a county that was in the Danelaw, but which has not yielded too much solid evidence for Scandinavian settlers. They add much weight to the counties artefacts and place names that reflect an Anglo-Scandinavian character, but whose reliability as evidence for settlers is hotly debated. Because these coins were only used by people who accepted them, either for their bullion value or because they were Scandinavian issues, this points directly to Scandinavians living in Leicestershire.