LONDON, Feb. 12 -- When Malcolm Weale saw the tiny, dirt-covered object he'd unearthed in an English field, he knew it was something special.

In his hand was a silver penny minted during the reign of Guthrum, a Viking commander who converted to Christianity and ruled eastern England in the ninth century as Athelstan II.

For Weale, finding the first silver coin minted by a Viking ruler in Britain was the pinnacle of decades of hunting with his metal detector in the fields and forests near his home in eastern England.

"I was shaking," Weale said at the British Museum, where the coin was displayed Tuesday alongside other items unearthed by amateur history hunters in 2023 and 2024. "I knew that it was a life-changing, incredible, historica...