{"id":567308,"date":"2026-04-16T15:35:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=567308"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:35:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:35:56","slug":"9th-century-coin-john-baptist-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/9th-century-coin-john-baptist-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninth-century coin depicting Saint John the Baptist found in eastern England puzzles experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

A ninth-century coin depicting Saint John the Baptist has been discovered in eastern England, in a find that experts say is highly unusual for its time and raises questions about its origin and meaning, BBC<\/a> reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The object, a pendant made from a perforated gold coin, was found by a metal detectorist near Dunton, in Norfolk. One side bears the inscription \u201cIOAN\u201d alongside the profile of a bearded man, while the reverse shows fragments of a Latin text interpreted as \u201cJohn, Baptist and Evangelist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numismatist Simon Coupland said the discovery is difficult to explain. The discovery raised more questions than it answered, which makes it “fascinating, unique and intriguing,” he said.<\/p>\n

According to the specialist, the lettering style suggests the coin dates from the second half of the ninth century, resembling Carolingian coins from around the 860s\u2013870s.<\/p>\n

Unusual coin<\/h2>\n

Depicting a saint on a coin from that period is highly uncommon. \u201cI don’t know of another John the Baptist from the Carolingian period; it’s bizarre – it’s not like anything else I know,\u201d the expert said.<\/p>\n

“If you look at who is pictured on portrait coins of the 9th Century in Western Europe, it is the king, but not John, not Christ – that is a Byzantine Empire thing,” he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the discovery is even more unusual because the method of producing the coin resembles that used by Scandinavian Vikings, who were not Christian at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what are they doing depicting John the Baptist?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

A mysterious find<\/h2>\n

\u201cSo now you see why it is such a mysterious find; it’s like a child with a hexagonal shaped object trying to fit it into squares when it doesn’t fit at all,\u201d the expert concluded.<\/p>\n

The coin is currently undergoing legal assessment under treasure legislation, after which a coroner will determine whether it qualifies as treasure. Norwich Castle Museum has already expressed interest in acquiring the piece.<\/p>\n

Photo: Norfolk County Council \/ Andrew Williams
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A ninth-century coin depicting Saint John the Baptist has been discovered in eastern England, in a find that experts say is highly unusual for its time and raises questions about its origin and meaning, BBC reports. The object, a pendant made from a perforated gold coin, was found by a metal detectorist near Dunton, in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":565725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[35553,26218,37268,37267,37269,37266,16023],"class_list":["post-567308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-en","tag-archaeological-findings","tag-archaeology","tag-coin-discovery","tag-gold-coin-pendant","tag-numismatist-discovery","tag-rare-coin","tag-saint-john-the-baptist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}