This giant gold ring was dropped by a giant Viking in Essex
by Carolyn Wingfield, 7-03-18
The size and weight of the ring suggest that it was most likely worn by a man. It weighs over 32 grams and we know from X-ray fluorescence analysis at the British Museum that the metal is over 95% gold, the rest being silver and copper.
That’s fairly common for gold of this date, to be a good standard. Vikings were very concerned with the purity of the metal. On silver coins you sometimes find little nicks made with a knife blade where they were testing that they’d got decent quality silver.
http://museumcrush.org/this-giant-gold-ring-was-dropped-by-a-giant-viking-in-essex/
