This lovely metal detector find was unearthed in East Anglia and is made of gun metal – An alloy of copper, zinc and lead.
“A pin cast with a highly stylised animal head terminal whose open jaws and teeth make a circular hold for suspension. The eyes are lozenge-shaped projections recessed under arching brows with a lozenge motif incised on the forehead and dotted fields to each side of the head. The nose expands to a blunt end with a bar where the top and bottom teeth meet. The back of the head runs back as three grooved bars with hollows between and there is a similar arrangement at the back; a grooved band runs around is section weaving in and out of the other ornament. The whole terminal tapers to the shank which has a square section and is broken off.”
“This is a dress pin designed to hold a suspension ring; ring-headed pins as a class were based on Irish forms but here the beast and its ornament are in the Scandinavian Borre style of the middle Viking period. It dates from the tenth century”.
