Fine leather pouch with gold print

Coin hoard from the island of Yholm in Svendborg Sound. The hoard was found in 1853 when some coins lay gleaming in a molehill. 475 coins and several silver bars and pieces of silver jewelry were found. The silver was apparently buried in a purse or pouch of leather with gold print. In 1989 the Svendborg Museum found a further 100 Viking Age coins and coin fragments at the site, as well as a few pieces of silver scrap. The hoard comprised at least 550 coins, the vast majority of Arabic origin.

The great Viking Age cemetery at Birka in Sweden has yielded numerous burials with remnants of pouches and purses. These are found in both male and female graves, and in a single case in the grave of a child. A few of the purses still have fur on the inside.

The hoard was buried late in the reign of Svend Forkbeard, c. 1010 AD.