STAVANGER, NORWAY—A metal detectorist discovered a 900-year-old silver coin linked to Magnus Barefoot, or Magnus Berrføtt, who ruled Norway from A.D. 1093 to 1103, Live Science reports. Only about 100 coins minted by the ruler have been recovered. Found in a plowed field near Utstein Monastery in southwest Norway, the coin is the first of its type to be unearthed in the country. Researchers from the University of Stavanger Museum of Archaeology determined that the coin’s outer edge had been folded around a copper plate, and a chain or loop may have been attached to two rounded notches on the edge, suggesting that the coin may have been worn as jewelry for many years. X-rays of the coin revealed a griffin underneath the copper plate, while the visible side bears a cross-over-cross motif. Two-sided coins with the combination of griffin and cross-over-cross designs are only known from four copies. Three of these were found in a single hoard in Denmark, while the fourth was unearthed in the Faroe Islands. To read about a curious tenth-century object unearthed in southern Norway, go to "Artifact: Viking Chess Piece."
