This pendant was discovered near Horncastle in 2012, and its unorthodox appearance is due to its long history of reuse.
Although the pendant is 6th or 7th Century in date, its life began as a coin in Iron Age Gaul. The coin was minted in c.70-60BC by the Suessiones tribe.
A male portrait with a strong nose and wavy hair is still clearly visible; on the reverse, the original lion motif is now less so.
We cannot know what happened between the coin’s original manufacture and its Anglo Saxon conversion into a pendant, or at what point it entered Lincolnshire, but it was converted through gilding and the addition of a suspension loop and three collets containing inset glass and garnets.
Courtesy of Lincolnshire County Council, The Collection