The Eye or Herefordshire Viking hoard
Coins and precious-metal objects found near Eye belong to the Viking Age, with deposition generally placed around AD 878–79.
No public image is currently linked to this place.
What this record tells us
Coins and precious-metal objects found near Eye belong to the Viking Age, with deposition generally placed around AD 878–79. The surviving material includes jewellery and coins of Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf II of Mercia. Estimates of an original hoard of roughly 300 coins must not be confused with the number recovered or acquired by a museum.
The find was concealed and dispersed, and the finders were convicted in 2019. Herefordshire secured the recovered core for public collections in 2022. The story matters archaeologically because dispersal destroyed relationships between objects and their buried setting. Eye is within the mapped localities adopted for this study, but the public locality is not proof of the exact field’s position within the study rectangle.
How this record is evidenced
Recovered objects and Herefordshire Council’s acquisition record establish the hoard. An original total of about 300 coins is an estimate, not the recovered count.
The investigation details are drawn from Leominster Heritage research from cited published sources; the original publication or report remains the authoritative source.
The clean title and short public summary have been prepared by Leominster Heritage and remain separate from the wording of the source record.
The open questions below identify the details that have not yet been securely established.
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The Eye or Herefordshire Viking hoard
Finds and discovery record · June 2015 · Approximate position
Coins and precious-metal objects found near Eye belong to the Viking Age, with deposition generally placed around AD 878–79.
Eye locality only; exact findspot not reproduced. Coordinates represent the centre of the stated grid square for display only; they are not an object findspot.
Source and further reading
Herefordshire Council, Herefordshire Hoard acquisition report and decision, March 2022; subsequent museum accounts of the recovered collection.
Herefordshire Museum Service Support Group, annual reports and Herefordshire Hoard acquisition appeal; discovery at Eye and dispersal history.
Entry-specific references: S07; S08
View the original sourceOpen questions
- A fuller published inventory and provenance assessment. Keep the public location generalised.
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