f ;/;/,'.!/ J.V AND BYZANTINE COINS. 



223 



have been discovered in Denmark, and previously to the years 

 780 to 800, no specimen of Merovingian or English coins have 

 been found in the North. 



The number of German is very great, and more than 

 fifty thousand have been found in Sweden and the island ot 

 Gotland ; they date chiefly from the middle of the tenth to 

 the middle of the eleventh century, and are sometimes found 

 to the number of one or two thousand together. 1 



Fig. 1033. Fig. 1034. 



German silver coin of Henry of Bavaria, end of tenth century. Gotland. Real size. 



The intercourse with the Byzantine empire which had taken 

 place in the earlier centuries continued for a long time, and a 

 great number of Northmen entered the service of the Byzantine 

 or Greek emperors, as seen in the Sagas. 



Fig. 1035. Fig. 103(3. 



Byzantine coins (948-949). Real size. Struck by the emperors Constantine X. 

 and Romanus III. Found with a necklace, 15 bracelets, 2 buckles, 2 spiral 

 bracelets, 3 perfect and 360 imperfect Arabic coins, all of silver, and all of 

 which were under an iron dish. Bjorko, Upland. 



1 Among the great finds of coins are 

 those of Findarfoe, in Gotland, which 

 had more than 3,000 German coins, 

 besides English and others. Another in 

 Johanneshus, in Blekinge, Sweden, which, 

 besides a mass of ornaments and jewels 

 of silver, contained over :$.4(M.) German 

 coins of the tenth and eleventh century. 

 The German coins had been struck for 

 German emperors, kings, princes, arch- 

 liisliops, bishops, &c., &c., and belong to 

 Bohemia, Bavaria, Swal.ia, Lorraine, 



Franconia, the modern Saxony, Frisia, 

 the Netherlands, &c. There are also 

 coins of cities, those of Cologne being 

 the most numerous, and even coins for 

 Northern Italy. Most of these coins are 

 derived from places along the rivers of 

 Germany, especially the Rhine. The 

 most common are those of Otto III. aud 

 his grandmother Adelheid. who n%ned 

 din-ins; the minority of her grandson 

 (991-995). 



