Claus Feveile/Birch Archaeometry
Posted on 06/18/2026 1:39:57 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Live Science reports that a new study of Viking coins from the Damhus hoard, a cache of 226 pennies unearthed in Denmark near the site of the Viking town of Ribe in 2018, suggests that they contain silver recycled from Islamic coins. The 1,000-year-old coins, known as pennies, bear a face on one side thought to represent the Norse god Wodan or Odin, with a stag on the reverse. Thomas Birch of the National Museum of Denmark said that each coin would have been enough to buy ale, bread, or simple tools. Analysis of the coins also shows that when the dies used to stamp them were worn, they were replaced with similar ones, Birch added. At least 30 dies had been used to make these coins, and likely hundreds of thousands like them, at a single mint in Ribe. Twenty-five of the coins were also examined with X-ray fluorescence to analyze their chemical compositions. Trace elements detected in the silver suggest that more than half of the metal in the coins came from Islamic silver coins known as dirhams. The Islamic coins are thought to have been melted down outside of Scandinavia, and transported to Ribe in the form of ingots. "If these coins are being minted in the hundreds of thousands, that's a huge quantity of Islamic silver," Birch explained. Read the open source academic paper on the research at Archaeometry. To read more about what coins can reveal about the ancient Norse, go to "Hoards of the Vikings."
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
"Heads? Tails? WTH is this?" [tr. from an old Viking inscription]
SO WHAT???? WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
The 1,000-year-old coins, known as pennies, bear a face on one side thought to represent the Norse god Wodan or Odin...
Denmark? WTH is this?
If it's Tuesday this must be Belgium, if it's Wednesday this must be Rome.
So what? It's historically interesting.
WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
What's wrong with which people? Who said there was anything "wrong" with anyone?
Don't be so hypersensitive.
“The Islamic coins ...”
Exactly how does metal proclaim it’s political ideology ... ?
Headline is annoying ...
RE: “… that each coin would have been enough to buy ale, bread, or simple tools”
Damn… I remember when a handful of pennies got me a comic book, a bunch of cherry string licorice, and a Mountain Dew…
But… Ours were copper not silver…
And I love the fact that these were taken from the Saracens (musloids) and melted down, then re-struck…
Re “… actly how does metal proclaim it’s political ideology…”
Metallurgical identification- the silver itself probably came from a specific region and can be identified through various testing means.
Not so much political as much as regional; and the area it came from was under control of the muzzies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
