Upwards of 20,000 Cufic and 15,000 Anglo-Saxon coins have been enumerated from hoards of this period in Sweden alone.
We have no knowledge of the types of personal ornaments in use in Asia at the time indicated by the dates of mintage of these Cufic coins. It is impossible, therefore, to establish the Oriental origin of these silver ornaments by demonstrating their identity of type with Oriental ornaments of that period. The question which remains for discussion, therefore, is, whether their forms and ornament present such relations to the forms and the ornament of any of the western countries in which they are found, as will correlate them with known types of native origin.
In 1840 a large hoard of silver ornaments, weighing upwards of a thousand ounces, along with a quantity of silver coins, from six to seven thousand in number, was discovered concealed in a leaden chest, and buried in the soil at Cuerdale, near Preston, in Lancashire. The coins consisted chiefly of Anglo-Saxon pennies, with a few of French and some Cufic mints, and the inference from the data they afford is that the deposit was probably made at some time subsequent to the commencement of the tenth century. The personal ornaments in the hoard consisted chiefly of rings of various sizes and of similar character to those that have been described as occurring in the deposit at Skaill. Some of the larger rings were composed of interplaited rods and twisted wires like those from Skaill, and the solid rings were also ornamented with patterns produced by impressions of a triangular punch, with dots in the field. There were also some fragments of the peculiarly-shaped brooches, with bulbous knobs and prickly ornamentation. One object in the hoard was distinctively Scandinavian—a small Thor’s hammer of silver, such as were commonly worn as amulets in the heathen time. Among the fragments described at the time as incapable of being determined, there are four which may now be said with certainty to be portions of penannular brooches of the distinctively Celtic form. This Celtic relationship was not perceived by Mr. Hawkins (who described them), except in one instance, which he recognises as “so much resembling the patterns on early crosses and architectural remains, that it is difficult to assign to it any other than a Northern origin.” But his general conclusion is that “it is scarcely consistent with sound reasoning upon all the facts of the case to assign any but an Oriental origin to these objects.” In this he is supported by Mr. Worsaae, who says that as these silver ornaments are not found in the west of Europe except in association with Cufic coins, and do not occur at all in the interior or southern parts of Europe, he regards it as without doubt that Mr. Hawkins has been perfectly right in giving an Oriental origin to at least a great part of the silver ornaments found at Cuerdale.