File:Early-medieval possible buckle plate, reverse (FindID 90438).jpg

English: A gilded cast copper-alloy artefact of probable early-medieval date. The object has three prongs through which three aligned holes have been drilled. The end with the prongs is the object's thickest point, at 7.5mm. The object then tapers to 4.0mm rendering it sub-triangular in section. The obverse field has an incised border containing a stylised zoomorphic motif: perhaps a bird. Beyond the field the object tapers once more: to a thickness of 2.0mm. Something would have projected from this end of the artefact; unfortunately this has been lost in an old break. The obverse has retained most of its original gilding.

Although the artefact is incomplete, the stylised decoration would suggest an Anglo-Saxon date. Its function is even more difficult to discern although it is suggested that it might have been a buckle plate, with provision for a buckle rather than directly for a pin. Alternatively it is possible that it was a mount from horse-harness (there are many unusually shaped harness mounts; see Dickinson 2011, in Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 17).

The possiblilty has been raised that this object is gilded silver, but it looks and feels more like gilded copper-alloy, and has therefore not gone through the Treasure process.