Hobbyist Archaeologist Uncovers Finland’s Largest Viking Age Coin Hoard

A metal detectorist in southern Finland searching for treasure in the forest of his hometown this month uncovered what professional archaeologists say is the largest Viking Age silver coin hoard ever found in the country.

The Lahti Museums, which manages archaeological heritage in Sysma, where the hoard was found, credited the detectorist, Kalle Lappinen, with leading archaeologists to a collection of thousands of coins and other silver objects. They include a bracelet and a silver bead, the museum said in on Wednesday.

The museum inspected and recovered the hoard after Mr. Lappinen alerted the antiquities authorities. Now it plans to clean, study and date the discoveries precisely, it said.

There are about 10 pounds of coins, according to its initial assessment, double the size of a collection found in 1895 in Nousiainen that contained 1,700 coins.

The new discovery is “very significant” and shines a light on Finland’s link to the Vikings, said Toni Paukku, an archaeologist at the Lahti Museums.

The Viking Age, from roughly 750 to 1050, coincides with a period in the late Finnish Iron Age. Vikings lived in what is now Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The new find underlines that “Finland was strongly connected to the Scandinavian cultural sphere, boosted by the trade of Scandinavian seafarers — some of whom were indeed Vikings — across the Baltic Sea,” Mr. Paukku said in an email.