Metal detectorist uncovers Norway’s first coin of Magnus Barefoot

A dirt-caked find that Morten Eek first mistook for a button turned out to be Norway’s first known coin of Magnus Barefoot. The silver piece came out of a field near Utstein Monastery in southwest Norway, and it sat among other questionable finds before the Rygene Detector Club sent it on for expert review.

Eek recovered the object in April 2025 from the plough layer, about 10 to 15 cm below the surface, during a hobby detecting outing. The find was initially set aside with other uncertain items because one side was obscured by copper and dirt. Only after the club noticed a cross on the visible face did the object go to the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger for a closer look.

The museum used X-ray imaging instead of stripping away the corrosion, because the coin was fragile and the copper attachment was part of its history. The scans showed that the hidden side had originally carried a creature that looks like a griffin, while the cross side matched an illustration in C.I. Schive’s 1865 reference work Norges mynter fra middelalderen. That identification placed the piece in the reign of Magnus Barefoot, who ruled Norway from 1093 to 1103.

The coin had undergone secondary modification, with a copper plate attached to one side and the edge folded around it. Two small notches on the rim may mark where a chain or loop was fitted, which suggests the coin later served as an ornament rather than circulating money.

About 100 Magnus Barefoot coins are known, with just a small number of cross-and-griffin pieces known before this discovery.