LOT 534

Bronze Age Gold Pennanular Striped Ring Money

LATE BRONZE AGE, 1500-1000 BC

3/4" (12.44 grams, 18.79 mm).

A pennanular gold open ring or adornment with stripes of silver banding inlaid, both sides hammered flat; the silver bands especially visible to the interior surfaces.

Purchased Stixwold, Lincolnshire, 2008; formerly in a private collection formed in the 1970s; shown at British Museum, London (their analysis stated to be 87% gold and 13% silver) and subsequently authorised for return to the vendor by the Rotherham and Doncaster Coroner following a legal case; accompanied by a letter confirming HM Coroner, South Yorkshire (East), confirming this.

Cf. Taylor, Joan J. Bronze Age Goldwork of the British Isles, plate 33g for a very similar example.

These penannular gold rings of Bronze Age date are commonly called 'ring money', as it is thought that they served as a form of early currency or exchange, in a similar manner to the later Celtic iron currency bars. This example is most unusual in having the sides hammered.