File:Pin head (FindID 556442).jpg

English: Silver pinhead (probably) in the form of a sitting bird. Wings folded against body and defined by a deep groove, their upper surface bears stamped decoration consisting of a medial line of X impressions, a line of round impressions and the edges marked by triangular impressions the details of all being lost to corrosion. the head is small and neat with a fowl-like beak. The eyes are represented by 9mm diameter hollows one of which appears to contain what might be traces of blue glass. Tail small, no legs shown, on the underside is the stub of a 2.3mm diameter shank.

Length 13.4mm, Width 5.1mm, Height 7.3mm, Mass 0.95g.

Most pins with bird-shaped terminals are considered to be of Roman date but this example is likely to belong to a small group of early Medieval pins. Anglo-Saxon zoomorphic pins have been discussed by Anna Gannon ('2007, 40-49) and, while most of the examples she describes are two-dimensional, the finely modelled animal's head on the pinhead from South Newbald, East Yorkshire, invites parallel. The example from Swinhope, Lincs. (PAS NLM-78C696; Treasure 2002 T43) is in the form of a bird, as is the pinhead from Whitby (Peers, C and Radford R. 1943, 47-72, esp. 55 and pl. XXVIII.a) although this lacks the grace and naturalism of the South Ferriby find. The South Ferriby bird is best seen as being of Middle Saxon date; the stamp decoration on its back fits best into this period as does the possible presence of a blue glass eye.