The coin is an imitation of one struck in the name of the Byzantine emperor Justin II, who ruled from AD565 to 578, external.
Miss Rogerson said the replicas were minted in several of the post-Roman Empire kingdoms by various European tribes to “give the impression they had the same level of authority as the empire”.
Similar objects from the 6th and 7th Century are rare finds in Essex, unlike in Kent, Suffolk or Norfolk, she said.
“The gold is really high quality and it is an elite object, but we don’t get these high status objects found through commercial archaeology, so if this hadn’t been found, we’d have had no idea there were these elite groups of people in this area at this time,” she explained.
“We know there are high status individuals at Prittlewell, but we are now getting glimpses of where else they were in Essex.”
