Surprise Mystery Gift package! Wanna see me open it?

Gotta milk it fer all it’s worth, right?

 

Let’s open this intriguing little black case first.



Aha. It’s a medal of some kind, and a handsome one, too. Very flashy, and proof, or prooflike.




Some chainmailed dude with a sword is about to face off with a bunch of marauding Vikings landing on a beach.




The medal was issued by the Heritage Mint in the UK.




It commemorates the Battle of Edington in 878 AD, which I had to look up. Yep. Alfred the Great defeated the Vikings at Edington.

Is this what @Dafydd said was the “piece of exonumia that is the only one in the USA and ever likely to be”? I expect it is, because though there is at least one other piece of exonumia in the package, that is of a type I’ve seen before. This one is a new one on me, obviously.

PS- I found it on the Heritage Mint’s website. Turns out it’s layered in 24K gold. I wondered what composition gave it that color (or, as the Brits would spell it, colour).