the purchasing power would probably not be sufficient to pay a heavy fine or for a small
farm. If we compare the silver hoards of the Viking Age with the 55 kg of gold from
Merovingian Scandinavia, this represents, in total, almost the same value as the Viking
Age silver. From this perspective most of the hoards deposited in Viking society must be
considered small-value holdings, and only a few, as for instance the Spillings hoard with
more than 14 , 300 coins and 50 k of silver, found on Gotland in 1999 , are to be regarded
as really large sums of money.
The large sums of money paid in tribute to Viking armies in Francia and England
have traditionally been considered the main reason for the many large hoards in Viking
Scandinavia. The evidence for tributes, however large, does not include any information
about what was paid, whether silver, gold, coins, goods or property. Indeed, not only has
the size of the sums been debated, but also whether the sums paid out to the Vikings
were carried to Scandinavia (Lawson 1984 : 721 – 38 ; 1989 : 385 – 406 ; 1990 : 951 – 61 ;
Gillingham 1989 : 373 – 84 ; 1990 : 939 – 50. For a numismatic approach to this question,
see Metcalf 1990 : 165 – 76 ). The small number of Frankish coins from the ninth and
tenth centuries found within the Viking world does not suggest a close connection
between the recorded tribute payments and the import of coins to Scandinavia. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lists enormous sums paid in tribute to Viking armies in the
years 991 , 997 , 1003 , 1012 and 1018. If coins were used to pay Danegelds, and these
were carried to Scandinavia, one should expect an increase in the hoards. This is also the
case for the so-called Quadrofoil-type issued in the name of Cnut the Great c. 1017 – 25 ,
which is most numerous in Scandinavian finds. These pennies were current when the
enormous Danegeld of 82 , 500 pounds silver were paid to Scandinavian Vikings in 1018.
However, the so-called Pointed Helmet-type, replacing the Quadrofoil issue in the
years c. 1025 – 30 / 1 , at a time where no records of tribute payments exist, is almost as
numerous in Scandinavia ( Jonsson 1994 : 222 – 3 ). Instead, German coins are the most
numerous in finds in the Viking world. The export of coins from Germany to Scandina-
via reached a peak in 1025 – 40. More than three-quarters of the German coins in
Swedish finds are made up of pennies from Lower Saxony, Cologne and the so-called
Otto-Adelaide pennies. There are no records of tribute payments being made to Vikings
from German territory. Instead the German coins have been labelled Fernhandelsdenare,
reflecting that the main reason for them being issued was to be used in trade with the
north and east. The evidence of tribute payments should not be disregarded, but
the coin finds suggest that other sources were more influential, for instance trade with
the Caliphate in the ninth and tenth centuries and Germany and England in the late
tenth and eleventh centuries.
One key feature of Viking Age hoards is their composition of coins. Hoards usually
contain a mixture of coins typical for the period when they were deposited, that is,
before c. 975 a mixture of Abbasid, Samanid and Volga-Bulgar dirhams with intrusions
of Merovingian, Carolingian, early Anglo-Saxon and Nordic coins. After c. 990 hoards
contained German and Anglo-Saxon pennies with smaller numbers of Scandinavian
imitations and eventually Danish and Norwegian coins, with intrusions of Hiberno-
Norse, Bohemian, Italian, Russian, Frankish and Islamic coins. This mixed composition
of coins from different regions is extraordinary, especially since neither German nor
English hoards from the same period resemble anything as heterogeneous as the
Scandinavian. The explanation for this is either that these coins arrived in Scandinavia
ready mixed or that coins were used extensively after they arrived in Scandinavia. The
–– chapter 10 : Coinage and monetary economies––