The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1959, Page 41

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
39
ur Silkbeard of Dublin, Ireland, 989—
1029, both of them copies of jEthel-
red’s mint. There are also three origin-
al coins, albeit modelled on English
money, which, when examined, prove
to have been minted for 61afur Sheet-
king of Sweden (994—1002), and final-
ly five small and wretched coins, in-
scribed with marks instead of letters,
minted at Hedeby for Harold Blue-
tooth, king of the Danes (940—960).
These last are all copies of the coinage
minted for Charlemagne at Dorestad,
and indicate clearly that the minter
has had no understanding whatsoever
of the inscription on his models.
It is, thus, possible to learn from
our hoard a good deal about the first
attempts at coinage on the part of the
Scandinavian peoples; how they at-
tempted in this novel venture to copy
the minting methods of West European
peoples. A long time was to pass, how-
ever, before the use of minted silver
became common. Far into the period
when the use of silver money had be-
come general among the Scandinavians
they continued to use scales to weigh
silver as of old, and the silver which
was used in business transactions took
various forms—unstamped bars and
rings, all kinds of old broken silver and
the silver coins of various lands. All
these forms of silver were to be found;
men carried it with them in small bags
or purses and called such a collection
sjoSur. Such were the sjoSir which are
often mentioned in the sagas, and if
they were of some size a nasty blow
might be struck with them which one
would more gladly give than receive.
Well known is the story of AuSur Ve-
steinsdottir, who used a sjoSur to strike
Eyjolfur the Grey on the nose with
such force that his blood bespattered
him. The silver from Gaulverjabaer
is one such sjoftur. Although it con-
tains no uncoined silver there can be
no doubt that its owner has weighed
portions of it in scales, not understand-
ing the value of the individual coins.
On the other hand, everyone no doubt
appreciated the fact that these round
and shining silver objects would make
fine ornaments. It was both easy and
economical to drill a hole through the
coins, string them on a cord and place
them on the neck of the desired one.
Several of the coins in our hoard have
been so honoured.
The approximate date of the burial
of the hoard from Gaulverjabaer is
quite clear. Olafur Sheetking is
believed to have accepted Christianity
in 1008 and to have founded at that
time the town of Sigtun to serve as a
missionary centre. It is the opinion of
scholars that only at this time did he
begin the coinage of silver, for his
coins are, generally speaking, minted
at Sigtun and carry such Christian
ejaculations as CRUX, IN NOMINE
DOMINI (i.e. cross, in the name of
the Lord). These are found in distorted
form on his coins in the hoard from
Gaulverjabaer. They are, thus, the
youngest coins in the collection, mint-
ed at the earliest in 1008. This date is,
therefore, the terminus post quern for
the burial of the hoard. But it can
not have been much later. This is
evident from the fact that the hoard
contains no coins of the successors of
Wthelred, which, however, are very
common in Scandinavia and might
have been expected to join their fel-
lows from Gaulverjabaer if that hoard
had been in circulation. The sheen and
lack of wear on the zEthelred coins
show also that they cannot have been
in circulation for any length of time.
In my opinion, one can safely date the
burial of the hoard from Gaulverja-
baer in the years 1010—1015.