A gold coin linked to King Ethered the Unready has been found in a coastal field.
The 1,000-year-old treasure is the northernmost Anglo-Saxon coin found in the UK.
Experts uncovered the Crux penny dating from the late 10th Century.
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The coin depicts Ethelred II, who became known as Ethelred the Unready because he was unable to prevent Viking invasions of England.
It was discovered at Nesting, east Shetland.
The find could point to trading routes between Viking-controlled Shetland and Anglo-Saxon England, or could be treasure from a Norse raid.
Dr Elinor Graham, from the University of Aberdeen, was on holiday in Shetland when she took part in the dig, as reported by What’s The Jam.
She said: “This is exactly how I wanted to spend my holiday.
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“The writing on the coin is still so sharp and we knew immediately that it was extremely rare, actually unique in this context.”
Graham, who specialises in excavating eroding coastal sites, said one other Anglo-Saxon coin had previously been found in Shetland at Old Scatness, an Iron Age broch and village in the South Mainland.
But the new discovery at Nesting is further north.
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Graham hopes the coin will eventually be added to the collections at Shetland Museum and Archives following analysis by the University of Aberdeen.
Scotland’s Treasure Trove Unit will decide whether the find should be offered to a museum.
Graham said the coin suggested the local area may have had a “well connected cosmopolitan community” with possible long-distance trading links to the Anglo-Saxon world.
“It’s an area with a huge amount of history through the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the early medieval period and into the Viking Norse period,” she said.
An Archaeology Shetland spokesperson said the excavation was carried out after Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk, assisted by Archaeology Shetland volunteers, identified prehistoric structures threatened by coastal erosion.
A small trench was opened to assess the landward extent of Iron Age structures, while volunteers carried out an Earth Resistance survey.
The coin was identified as an Anglo-Saxon Aethelred II Crux type coin minted between 991 and 997.
Ethelred took over the English throne aged about 12 in AD 978 after the assassination of his half-brother Edward, possibly at the instigation of their mother.
His turbulent reign reached a low point when he was briefly ousted by Denmark’s King Sweyn Forkbeard in 1014 before regaining the throne for another two years.
Ethelred attempted to pay protection money to Viking raiders to prevent attacks, but the payments proved ineffective.
His nickname ‘the Unready’ was a pun on his name, meaning ‘noble counsel’.
Despite his troubled reign, Ethelred was the longest-reigning Anglo-Saxon monarch.
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