The Hoard from the Secretaire

Abstract

In the 1980s much effort was made to get an, until then, unknown Viking Age silver hoard into the University Museum of Lund for registration. It was a large hoard consisting of over 900 coins, jewelry and hacksilver. We succeeded to have the hoard on display a few days in 1986.Thereafter the hoard was collected again by the finders and its further destiny was unknown. This was very much to regret as the hoard contains several unique objects, some of them also of exquisite quality. There is filigree work of Scandinavian and West Slavonian origin, a couple of coin bracteates and an arm ring. Most of the objects are fragmented, which indicates that they were means of payment. The coins, German, English, Islamic, Scandinavian, Italian etc. clearly show the wide contact net of Southern-Sweden in the late Viking Age. For long, I thought that the hoard was forever lost for research. However, in spring 2021 the hoard appeared and was put at auction in Stockholm and two numismatic foundations bought the entire hoard, which is now kept at The Royal Coin Cabinet, now Ekonomiska Museet, Stockholm.