Medieval hammered coins were produced by hand-striking thin blanks of metal between punched and engraved iron dies.  There is a near endless depth of historic value and importance to the numismatic record of this period, from the end of the Western Roman Empire, until the early modern age.  Lockdales is based north of Ipswich,  perhaps the first settlement of the Angles in Britain, and a heartland of early English archaeology and metal-detecting (working in accordance with the B.M. Portable Antiquities Scheme).