BRITISH MUSEUM VIKING COIN EXHIBITION

Coins feature in a number of places in the exhibition Vikings: life and legend. Coins minted by Viking kings such as Eirik Bloodaxe of Northumbria, Harald Bluetooth of Denmark and Cnut the Great are, of course, included and help to tell a story of increasing national unity, economic change and processes of Christianisation.

More unusual is a rare glimpse of two coins minted by Vladimir the Great of Kiev, the Rus prince who claimed descent from Scandinavian Vikings. The exhibition also includes many of Islamic coins – found in hoards (such as the British Museum’s own Vale of York hoard) or converted into jewellery - that bear witness to the activity of Viking traders in Eastern Europe and central Asia.

The importation of silver coins from the Islamic Caliphate had a transformative effect on Viking-Age silver economies. Equally striking is the sight of large numbers of freshly minted late Anglo-Saxon coins in the Tyskegård hoard (National Museum of Denmark) – a collection of wealth that demonstrates that the Anglo-Saxon state was as rich a source of tribute as the documentary sources suggest.

For more information on the Money and Medals Network, see: www.moneyandmedals.org.uk/

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web