FINDS OF ROMAX COIXS. 201 



The people had to learn that these coins had an intrinsic 

 value, and that with them they could Itny goods. In every 

 country where barter takes place it lias taken a certain, some- 

 times a great, number of years for the people to learn this 

 value. 1 The fact that the earlier coins are rare does not con- 

 clusively prove that intercourse between the North and the 

 Western parts of Europe had not taken place before that 

 time. 



Judging from the extensive hoards of coins discovered, it 

 is not improbable that they were kept for some opportune 

 time when their need would be required, such as for purchases 

 when travelling back to the Western or Eastern Koman pro- 

 vinces. That the people were well acquainted with the value 

 of these coins is beyond dispute, for otherwise they would not 

 have kept them. 



We must remember that human nature is and always has 

 been the same ; there were misers in those early days as there 

 are now. The ISagas give us some examples of the practice 

 of hoarding, and the probability is that some of the hoards 

 found may have been collected during the lifetime of one or 

 more persons. But the numbers found, in hoards or otherwise, 

 even without those which remain undiscovered, show the 

 existence of commercial intercourse. 



( hie of the countries of whose earlier history we know 

 nothing, except that it is mentioned here and there in the 

 Sagas, is the island of Gotland ; but from the finds, which are 

 especially rich in coins, we are led to the conclusion that it 

 was a great emporium of trade at least from the beginning 

 of the Christian era to the twelfth century. Roman, Byzantine, 

 Arabic, and earlier English coins are found in far greater mini- 



are exceedingly rare, only one of Valens A.I>. 249 and 361. See also Appen- 



(:'>i'>4 378) and one of Gratuanus (367- ; di.x. 



3751 having been discovered ; also one j ' I have myself seen an illustration of 



of Tiberius Constamius (57S-.">s_'), one this on the African coast, where natives 



of Mauricius Tiberius (582-602), one of could not understand that coins repre- 



(Jonstantius V. Copronvmus (741-775), sent the value of goods, though traders 



one of Miclutl 111. (842-867) all of hud come to their country for a long 



gold. Some of the earlier Arabic coins time, and in some places they were loth 



had already made their appearance iu to take money as payment, while a few 



Scandinavia. The Roman coins from miles inland it was refuse.!. 

 the Bangstrup find date from between 



