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AmbitiousBird5503 t1_iv82k2a wrote

Reply to comment by drexa24 in A 1000-year-old Viking silver treasure found in Sweden by drexa24

Crazy to think people had different countries coins just in their home. Its one of those small parts of life that i wouldn't have thought that vikings or any other people from 1000 yrs ago experiencing too.

I guess coming back from abroad and having forgeign money you can't spend at home isn't a relatively new thing after all. Makes me feel better about the euros I have laying about.

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DOnotRespawn t1_iv8oogh wrote

Money wasn't restricted within borders back then. It was judged by it's weight and metal content, not so much the issuing country.

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teplightyear t1_iv8ra1t wrote

Right, but the issuing country (and whoever the ruler was at the time the coin was minted) are required information for determining the metal content, unless you literally destroy the coin.... so coins from certain issuing countries with certain rulers on their heads could be accepted as more valuable than others if you could find someone to trade with that also had that knowledge.

There was another interesting article that I read yesterday about a late Roman hoard that was found in Spain that had coins minted by several Emperors after Diocletian's reforms, with a vast majority of the coins being minted by Diocletian.. on that one, the researchers hypothesized that the hoard was literally representative of a payment during a Venezuela-like inflation crisis and that the Diocletian coins were valued higher because they were known to have the highest silver content.

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Rhinoturds t1_ivaig1x wrote

That isn't to say there weren't preferred coins though. If a coin wasn't common enough to be recognized as silver other commoners or even some merchants might not accept it out of caution.

This is partially why the roman Denarius is found everywhere. Not only were a large amount minted but because the empire sprawled so far and wide it was easily recognized as silver. The romans even had to set the value slightly above the value of the metal content to help encourage people to keep the currency within their borders.

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UrTheReasonBidenWon t1_iv8o7u3 wrote

Vikings also had a tradition of burying treasure. I bet there are lots of treasure hoards out there yet to be discovered.

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Dubbodoo t1_iv9c940 wrote

Unfortunately Sweden has pretty much nuked amateur metal detecting which will heavily reduce the number of finds. You're not even able to detect on your own property. Unlike the UK, who actively promote it and generously reward any significant finds. People are more likely to now melt a find down since they would receive little reward for turning it in, and there's the possibility of being fined depending on the circumstanes of the discovery. The worst part is that these laws only impact folks who love history and want to report their finds and have no impact on nighthawks since they will be detecting and stealing regardless.

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rlnrlnrln t1_iv9eb6h wrote

If you find treasure containing valuable metal, you get the value of the metal.

But the idea is also to let things remain in the ground for the future, when new methods may be available.

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Dubbodoo t1_ive1q2z wrote

I don't believe you do. In the UK you get the value of your finds, but in Sweden I'm fairly certain they use a few factors to determine the award and it is usually quite small (in comparison to the value of the find if it's precious metals). I'd have to check into it again; I had researched it a few years ago when I was visiting and was thinking of bringing my detector. Quickly learned I couldn't.

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GothWitchOfBrooklyn t1_iv9t1n6 wrote

Wow really? That's like a hobby here in the us, my neighbor also uses a metal detector to clean up metal on an old neglected property he bought too. It's fun!

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FarHarbard t1_iv9uff5 wrote

A lot of archaeologists dislike American amateurs as well, they don't often document the provenance of a find so they lose much of the historical context.

It is one thing to go scavenge lost watches at the beach, but when it comes to people digging up colonial and pre-colonial artefacts it can be damaging.

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GothWitchOfBrooklyn t1_iv9v5w0 wrote

Ah yeah, I guess I just meant on your own property. Not going after historical areas

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BoredCop t1_iv8otkh wrote

Coins back then were made of silver, and had value as precious metal irrespective of minting. They would commonly cut coins up into smaller pieces to make change. So the foreign coin at the the time would be perfectly good for use at home, they wouldn't have treated coins any different from other silver pieces used for trade.

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Gople t1_iv8q7uj wrote

Foreign coins were the whole raison d'etre for vikings. This silver hoard, including the jewelry, could have been spent directly as bullion; they wouldn't even have to exchange it for local currency like our leftover euros. It's in a home because there was no bank to deposit wealth in.

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Buck_Thorn t1_iva2j91 wrote

In those days (and even as recent as a few generations ago in the US) a coin was roughly equal to the value of the metal that it was made from, so it didn't really matter which country's name was stamped on it.

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AmbitiousBird5503 t1_ivbi7e6 wrote

Didn't know that when I wrote it, but thanks for the info! I did think that but I just haven't spent time researching coins and their usage or value through history.

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The_Original_Gronkie t1_ivare3g wrote

This guy had all these different coins that he wore as pendants. 5 were Arab coins, and the rest from different European countries. He was an early coin collector, and liked to show them off to his friends. He was probably known for it: "Here comes Lothar! Nobody ask him about the coin around his neck, or that's all we'll hear about for the rest of the night."

It's a really interesting, humanizing detail of this person.

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Bassiclyme t1_ivb2sik wrote

They could also have been worn to show his success as a mercenary. A man who survived long enough to get paid by multiple countries with multiple different coins would probably like to make that known. Vikings were know to sail as far as the Black Sea and then traverse to the Middle East by land and offer services as mercenaries.

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fiendishrabbit t1_iv9i9f4 wrote

I don't think you understand how coins worked back then.

They weren't using currency like we do nowdays, because to the extent that currency was used it was as a convenient way of exchanging precious metals. A mint would put their reputation into guaranteeing that coin had a certain metal purity. Silver would then have been exchanged by the weight of the coins, not by number (some places like attican greece had, for convenience, standardized coin weight).

While a coin with an unknown stamp (and as such an unknown silver purity) would have been slightly harder to spend major markets (and many merchants) would have been qualified to assay coins. Either using a touchstone or through fire assay.

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AmbitiousBird5503 t1_ivbhyhw wrote

Honestly haven't spent much time analysing coins and how money worked throughout history, dont have the time for it at all, but thank for the info!

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contentPudding28926 t1_iva0dcv wrote

Interesting to think about other cultures that may have done the same, not just the Vikings. Come to think of it, I also have euros laying around at home too!

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Lapidariest t1_ivbith5 wrote

Because they are not silver and therefore worthless as all fiat money is.

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jej218 t1_ivbr5is wrote

I wouldn't say fiat is worthless. It doesn't have use value or any intrinsic value but it still has accepted value.

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Lapidariest t1_ivc52iv wrote

Until it doesn't. If there is ever a SHTF event, the paper stuff might make good burning tinder. The coins only worth whatever base metal they are made of. The viking hoard was silver. Worst case scenarios, the owner could of melted it and had it recoin to a new silver coinage or traded for straight up bullion value. Silver and gold will always be money, but fiat has been disconnected from that. It,is only worth what the person accepts it as. A hyperinflation event would make fiat just about worthless. There's been a lot of inflation lately, and lots of spending.... Billions given to fight a proxy war with Russia, spend on green legislative handouts, etc. Eventually the bills will need paid, you can only kick the can down the road so far and so many times.

https://usdebtclock.org/

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of_patrol_bot t1_ivc53ns wrote

Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.

It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.

Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.

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jej218 t1_ivcbxnf wrote

If things get bad enough that my USD is more valuable as tinder than as currency, gold is unlikely to be much use to me either. At that point you'll be best off with firearms, ammunition, gasoline, food with long shelf life, acreage, and an agricultural education.

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ammonium_bot t1_ivgq85n wrote

Did you mean to say "could have"?
Explanation: You probably meant to say could've/should've/would've which sounds like 'of' but is actually short for 'have'.
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Royal_Bumblebee_ t1_ivpe3l8 wrote

yeah... dont forget that they would be paid off with foreign coins... and back then they would have literally been made out of a prescious metal meaning you can melt them down and recast in your own style...etc.

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