Coins, Tokens, Historical Medals and Antiquities

Medieval, gilt-bronze Seal Matrix, late 14th-early 15th cent., pointed oval, 6.2cm x 3.7cm, in a niche with three-gabled canopy above and tabernacle work at the sides, the Virgin crowned standing holding child in her right hand and sceptre in her left, archway below with a Bishop half-length facing, holding a crozier, above a shield with a cross, legend around s iohis cap...tor dia epi ivibi fieirhmein; on the back is a raised panel 1.2cm deep in the shape of a fish with a suspension loop as the eye. Intact with a dark brown patina and gilding evident in the recesses £2,000-£3,000

Provenance: Found at Swingfield, near Folkestone (Kent), 1995.

This matrix was unearthed in a ploughed field at a depth of 6-8 inches, using a Tesoro Laser metal detector. The find-spot is close to a chapel belonging to the St John’s Commanders (Hospitalers). In the 13th century it was called ‘Swinesfield’. The Preceptory was a priory until the dissolution of the monasteries. The chapel of St John still survives and the inscription appears to relate to it and the Bishop of Swinesfield