Just What the Doctor Ordered: Norwegian Metal Detectorist Unearths Gold Find of the Century

Earlier this year, Erlend Bore’s doctor told him he needed a hobby, anything to get the 51-year-old Norwegian man off the couch and moving. So Bore bought a metal detector – and promptly stumbled across Norway’s most stunning gold find in a century.

In August, Bore unearthed nine coin-like gold pendants engraved with rare horse symbols, along with ten gold beads and three gold rings on the southern island of Rennesøy, near the city of Stavanger, in one of the most amazing discoveries in Norwegian history.

On the advice of his doctor, Bore was out walking the mountainous island with his metal detector when he came across the treasure weighing more than 100 grams (approximately 3 1/2 ounces). Bore said his “heart was racing” when he realized the magnitude of his discovery.

“I had been searching along the shore but only found scrap metal and a small coin. So, I decided to explore higher ground, and the metal detector immediately started beeping,” Bore said. What he held in his hands was a clump of earth containing what looked to be gold coins. “At first, I thought I had found chocolate coins or plastic pirate treasure. It was surreal.”

“This is the find of the century in Norway,” said Ole Madsen, the Director of the Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger. “Discovering such a significant amount of gold at once is extremely rare.”

According to Associate Professor Håkon Reiersen at the Museum of Archaeology, the gold pendants date from around 500 AD. The gold pendants – known as “bracteates” – resemble gold coins but were used primarily as jewelry, not for buying or selling goods.

“The nine bracteates and the gold beads would have formed an exceptionally splendid necklace, which was crafted by skilled goldsmiths and worn by the most powerful individuals in society,” Reiersen said. “Finding so many bracteates together is exceedingly rare. This is the first such find in Norway since the 1800s, and it’s also an uncommon find in a Scandinavian context.”

Per Norwegian law, the monumental discovery has been turned over to the government. All objects dating before 1537 and coins older than 1650 are considered state property and must be reported. The gold find is now with the Museum of Archaeology.

 

The gold treasure photographed immediately after Erlend Bore unearthed it with a metal detector.

Photo: Erlend Bore

 

Erlend Bore with his gold find and metal detector at the Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger. The discovery was delivered to the museum the day after it was unearthed.

Photo: Courtesy Anniken Celine Berger, Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger

 

Henry III Gold Penny

A penny for your thoughts. In September 2021 during a search on some farmland in Devon, a county in southwest England, amateur metal detectorist Michael Leigh-Mallory unearthed a small, very old gold coin. Leigh-Mallory thought he had something but wasn’t sure what, so he posted a photo of the coin on Facebook. A numismatist from London auctioneer Spink & Son spotted it and advised Leigh-Mallory to record the find with the British Museum. Turns out it’s a “Henry III gold penny,” minted about 1257, depicting the King, complete with orb and scepter, sitting on an ornate throne. Henry III ruled from 1216 until his death in 1272. The coin, an inch in diameter, was struck by William of Gloucester from imported gold from North Africa. Only eight of the pennies are known to exist and most are in museums. Estimated worth: $550,000. The penny sold at auction earlier this year for a total of $872,318, including fees. Now that’s our kind of inflation.

 

 

What Looked Like a Can of Herring, Turned Out to Be Gold

An amateur treasure hunter out for a casual day of using his new metal detector in the Danish countryside uncovered a stash of 22 gold medallions inscribed with mystical symbols, the Danish government recently announced. The gold artifacts are thought to be 1,500 years old, dating back to the Iron Age.

First-time treasure hunter Ole Ginnerup Schytz had only been out with his new metal detector for a few hours when he made the discovery. Experts say the discovery in Denmark’s countryside is one of the largest and most important in Danish history. “I had no idea (what I had found),” Schytz said, “so all I could think of was that it looked like the lid of a can of herring.”

The medallions he found were popular in northern Europe around 300 to 700 B.C. Women would have worn the pendants, which were often inscribed with magical symbols or runes, for protection. Older artifacts found include gold coins from the Roman Empire that were converted into jewelry. The objects’ immaculate craftsmanship points to their original owner’s probable high status.

 

We Really Have to Buy a Metal Detector — and Travel to England 

England never fails to produce for amateur metal detectives and history buffs. This year, armed only with a metal detector, a man found a gold and garnet fitting that would have been used on a sword made in the 6th or 7th century. The adornment, which helped keep swords in their sheath, was likely lost by some ancient lord or early medieval king in what is now Norfolk, England. Sword pyramids usually come in pairs, but this one was found alone, meaning its owner may have misplaced it while “careening around the countryside,” according to the BBC.

Shaped like a pyramid with a truncated peak, the artifact’s square base measures less than half an inch on each side. The pyramid’s four faces feature two distinct designs, both of which have inlaid garnets probably imported from India or Sri Lanka. The gemstones’ presence speaks to the existence of trade between Europe and Asia at that time.

The Sutton Hoo area near Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, is the location of  a major archeological find — 18 mounds consisting of a burial ship which included a royal burial chamber.  The story of this discovery in 1939 was made into a Netflix movie, The Dig.

 

 

Arrr, Matey! Coin Discovery May Prove Murderous Pirate Escaped to New England 

It was the first “worldwide” manhunt and one of the oldest unsolved mysteries of the ages: No one knew what happened to the murderous English pirate Capt. Henry Every after he led a deadly ambush in 1695 of the Ganj-i-Sawai, a royal ship owned by Indian emperor Aurangzeb. The ship was carrying worshipers returning from a pilgrimage, as well as 10s of millions of dollars’ worth of gold and silver. Historical accounts say the pirates killed the men aboard the Indian ship and raped the women before escaping to the Bahamas, a haven for pirates. Until recently, historians only knew that Every eventually sailed to Ireland in 1696, where the trail went cold.

But—shiver me timbers!—more than a dozen 1600s coins minted in Yemen and unearthed by a metal detectorist in New England tell a potentially different tale. The coins were found by amateur historian Jim Bailey and others in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Every may have escaped the manhunt by posing as a slave trader.

Bailey is keeping his finds in a safe deposit box. “For me, it’s always been about the thrill of the hunt, not about the money,” he said. “The only thing better than finding these objects is the long-lost stories behind them.”

 

Photo: Photo: NBCNews.com; Steven Senne / AP

Treasure Found in Maine 

A North Carolina man brought a metal detector with him when he went on vacation early this month in Maine. He found something more than just nails when using it near a church in the town of Embden. Treasure hunter Shane Houston uncovered a 222-year-old copper coin buried in the dirt. The penny is dated 1798 and is valued at about $200. The coin shows the draped bust of Lady Liberty in profile, with the word liberty and the year. It was designed by Robert Scot, the first Chief Engraver of the United States Mint, after a painting by Gilbert Stuart. Money was first minted in the U.S. in 1793. It is the oldest coin Houston has found in more than 10 years of metal detecting. On that lucky vacation, he also found an 1818 penny, a wagon wheel and a musket ball that is believed to be British. He plans to keep his find.