Metal detectorist stumbles on 1,000-year-old ‘credit card’ used by Vikings. See it
A metal detectorist swept his device over the ground of an island midway between the United Kingdom and Ireland. Following a telltale beep, he stumbled on a small metal item — and found a Viking “credit card.”
John Smart found the silver treasure while using a metal detector on the self-governing Isle of Man, Manx National Heritage said in a May 28 news release.
Experts identified the artifact as a 1,000-year-old silver ingot from the Viking Age. A photo shows the skinny metal bar.
“Ingots like this were used in the Viking world for trade,” Allison Fox, an archaeology curator with the heritage department, said in the release.
“I often compare it to a credit card, essentially,” Fox told Manx Radio, a news outlet on the island. “Because the value is in its silver content ... they could spend that anywhere in the Viking world.”
“The ingots were weighed and tested to make sure of their silver content and they were used in part or in whole to buy whatever a Viking needed,” Fox said in the release. The Vikings also used coins, lead ingots and copper ingots as forms of payment.
The ingot found by Smart weighs less than an ounce and is “uncut,” officials said.
“This ingot may only be a small artefact,” Fox said, “but put into context, it helps illustrate how the Isle of Man was a part of the international Viking trade network 1,000 years ago.”
“Vikings arrived on the Isle of Man in the 800s, firstly trading and eventually settling,” the heritage department said.
A photo shows Smart holding the Viking treasure. He told Manx Radio he’s owned a metal detector for over 40 years.
“It’s the thought of finding something of interest,” he told the radio. “You’re detecting over a land with nothing, it’s soundless, then suddenly there’s a little beep. Suddenly, there’s the interest of what that might be.”
The ingot was put on display at the Manx Museum, officials said.
This story was originally published June 5, 2024 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Metal detectorist stumbles on 1,000-year-old ‘credit card’ used by Vikings. See it."
