attributed to a limited number of places within Viking Scandinavia: Haithabu, Ribe,
Lund, Sigtuna and Nidarnes before the expansion of minting in earnest developed in
Denmark in the 1030 s and 1040 s and in Norway in the 1050 s and 1060 s respectively.
After minting became widespread in the Danish kingdom, coinage was produced at a
number of mints: Lund, Roskilde, Slagelse, Ringsted, Viborg, Ribe, Ørbæk and Ålborg;
and in Norway coins were minted at Nidarnes (Trondheim) throughout the eleventh
century and in Hamar for a short period in the 1050 s. In addition there are many coins
struck in Norway in the reign of Olaf Kyrre ( 1067 – 93 ) with illegible legends, which
have yet to be attributed to specific mints. These issues were either struck at minor
mints of a temporary nature, or might have been struck by travelling mints, for example
if travelling kings brought with them equipment for minting to be used on demand.
The monetary systems that developed within the Viking world must be regarded as
the personal property of the king or issuing authority, which could be used for display
purposes and personal enrichment. Sven Estridsen and Harald Hardrade were the first
in Scandinavia deliberately to take advantage of manipulating the silver content of
their coins to make additional income, beginning in the 1050 s and 1060 s (Skaare 1976 ;
Gullbekk 1996 ).
THE USE OF MONEY AND MONETARY ECONOMIESArab historians writing in the ninth and tenth centuries describe northerners as trades-
men with a profound liking for silver and dirhams. In Frankish and English sources
Norsemen are described as savage men raiding towns and sacred places with a lust for
precious metal and exacting tribute in large figures with a beginning at Lindisfarne in
793.
Despite the emphasis on violence, the written sources also present Vikings as people
trading and exchanging goods and services with the locals. Icelandic sagas describe a
range of situations where culture, religion and economy came together within Viking
society. In these tales we hear of coins and money used for display, gift-giving, taxation,
bribery, fines, coins being buried in the ground to store wealth, the retrieval of hoards,
the manipulation of coinage, testing of coins, and trade in different forms.
The many silver hoards are one of the characteristics of the Viking world. These
hoards include more Viking Age coins from Germany and England than have ever been
found in those respective countries. In consequence one label that is often used about the
Viking Age is the Age of Silver. Coinage and economy in the Viking Age have been seen
as evidence for the Viking’s lust for silver, and often interpreted as a consequence of the
‘Law of Óðinn’, individuals securing wealth for their prosperity in the afterlife by hiding
treasure in the ground. However, the question is whether they should be interpreted as
evidence for a monetised society, or on the contrary if they are to be interpreted in the
context of a society where coins were used only to a small extent.
On the basis of saga literature, the Viking Age economy and society are often
perceived as having peasant characteristics, very much reliant on self-sufficiency. In this
society a wide spectrum of goods and services were used as a means of exchange, with
a multitude of different social and economic meanings, as was the case in medieval
Scandinavia, and probably also before the Viking period. Even though the archaeological
evidence at first sight seems overwhelming, one should not overemphasise the value of
silver in this period. A hoard of a thousand silver coins is considered a large hoard, but
–– Svein H. Gullbekk––