Iona Abbey

MCHBI Ref: SCO0218

Updated: 18-02-2023

Location And Setting

  • Region: Scotland
  • County: Argyll
  • Mapped location accuracy: <100 meters

Timing

  • Deposited: 985-1000

Discovery

  • Discovered: 1950
  • Circumstances: Construction, building work.
  • Context: Building - Religious
  • Feature: Unknown

Container And Contents

  • Container: None
  • Hoard Type: Coins only

Coin Summary

  • Num. of coins: 350-
  • Latest Coin: Second hand type of Aethelred II.
  • Latest Coin Date: 985 - 991
  • Coins issued by: Æthelstan [9], Eadmund [14], Eadred [65], Eadwig [25], Eadgar [200], Æthelred II - "the Unready" [6], Hiberno-Norse York, undiff. [13], Normandy undiff. [3]

Other Items

Three small metal objects were recovered: (a) a bar of silver 5% in. long, one end tapered like a bracelet of common Viking type, bent into a pointed oval, (b) a fragment of gold wire 1.5 in. long, bent in a loop and cut off (c.) a mounting, elaborately ornamented and probably Anglo-Saxon work of the tenth century.

Disposition

After cleaning, the hoard was placed permanently in the National MUSeum, except for a few duplicates sent to the Iona Trustees and the British Museum.

Summary Notes

An Anglo-Saxon hoard consisting mainly of pre-reform coins; six coins of Aethelred present. Workmen of the Iona Community were digging a trench for a drain on 11 August 1950, they struck a hoard of Anglo-Saxon silver pennies some 21 inches below the present ground-level outside the S.W. corner of the Abbot’s House. Sticking to one another through corrosion, the coins were fragile and a number broke up in transit and cleaning. Most however responded well, and some even appear to be in mint condition. There must have been over 350, 343 of which it has been possible to catalogue and publish in full in the Numismatic Chronicle, 6.xi.(1951).

References