File:Fragment of post medieval silver head dress pin (FindID 139439).jpg

English: Fragment of 17th century silver headdress pin. Originally this head dress pin would have taken the form of a tapering shaft, rectangular in section, with a long, rectangular slot at the broader end, above which would have been a decorative terminal with an additional perforation for the suspension of a pendant. This fragment represents the pointed end of the pin, with the upper rectangular slot and terminal entirely missing.

The fragment is now bent so that the shaft has a curved profile. It is 51.92mm long, from tip to break edge, across the curve. It is 4.78mm wide at the break edge, tapering to 1.2mm at the blunt point. It is 2.12mm thick and weighs 3.93g. It is decorated to either face of the pin, just below the break edge, with incised cross hatching set between border lines of a single horizontal line above and below. Extending from beneath the lower line are a number of incised parallel lines of descending height to either side of a taller central line, which form a triangular shape.

The break edge is horizontal, clean and regular, worn but not smooth, and deliberately placed above the point of decoration. It seems fair to suggest that the pin may have been deliberately cut. If it were cut just beneath the rectangular slot, this would make sense, as similar decoration is seen at this point on other pins, but this would make the pin much shorter than other examples.

Headdress pins were used in the Low Countries and were possibly brought to England by immigrants. Similar pins have been found in Norfolk and Suffolk. See Margeson, 1993, Norwich Households, page 9, plate III for a complete example, with similar vertical, stepped line decoration.