A "rare find" of a gold pendant, an imitation of a Byzantine coin at North Elmham, Dereham, Norfolk, UK was declared treasure by the Norfolk coroner on Wednesday.
The 23.5mm diameter pendant, created from an imitation of a gold solidus of emperor Maurice Tiberius (582-602 AD), features a suspension loop with three longitudinal ribs having been soldered to the edge of the coin immediately above the emperor's head.
Norfolk coroner William Armstrong said he believed the hoard, which bore an image of emperor Constantine 1, who ruled Britannia, was either lost or deposited during the last days of Roman rule in Britain, possibly in anticipation of impending upheaval and with a view to retrieving the coins at a later date.
The 150 ancient artefacts, which date back to the late 4th or early 5th century, were discovered by metal detecting and geophysics enthusiast Malcolm Weale on farmland at Quidenham on July 1, 2010.
Adrian Marsden, finds officer based at Norwich Castle Museum, said the object was probably buried with its owner.
Mr Marsden added: "This is an early copy of a Byzantine gold coin made in France.
"The Merovingians [French rulers] created copies of Byzantine coins from their bullion as there wasn't enough coinage coming in from the eastern Roman empire. How many of these copies were 'official' currency is hard to say."
"What's interesting is you have somebody in France copying a Byzantine coin which then also followed the trend of turning it into jewellery."
Mr Marsden said the coin was likely to have come to England as a result of export trade at the time.
"We see very few of these so it's an interesting find and one that we will hope to acquire for the Norwich Castle Museum collection."
Other discoveries included an early medieval silver gilt mount, dating back to the early Carolingian age in the eighth and ninth century, which was found at Roudham, two Iron Age silver units found at Tacolneston, a middle bronze age gold pennanular ring found at Morley and an early medieval biconical gold bead discovered at Witton.
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