Collections Online

This combination lock has five freely rotating rings engraved with capital letters. The type is sometimes called a 'Nuremberg Lock' (eg Cressing, Essex).

Of the 34 letters, representing most of the letters of the alphabet (except for J, U, W and Y), 10 appears on the edges of the two static end plates and 24 on the rotating rings. The letter sequences are: PE3DA / DHBAXM / FVTQXN / CO3LRF / 1GKOES / ROGCB. One possible mnemonic is DANCER, but this would not fit as the first and final letter groups are on non-rotating end plates.

Numerous examples of sixteenth century combination locks have been recovered through the Portable Antiquities Scheme. A complete example from the Suffolk coast (PAS unique ID: SF8892) no longer rotates and the lock is now closed reading OXEN under the clasp. As the lock is closed another word was presumably required to open it, an obvious (perhaps too obvious) alternative possible from the available letters is OPEN, other options was OVEN and ROBIN. An example from the British Museum collection (M&ME 1992, 0410.1) opens with the word MARCI.

Plate no. 16

980 coins and artefacts associated with the Ann Francis shipwreck.