1843.] Descriptive list of some Coins. 445 



Copper was very rarely used as a means of exchange, and we may 

 notice, that during this whole period no gold or copper coins were 

 used in Norway, unless we should refer to the latter, the silver coins 

 of the end of the 13 th century, with which a large portion of copper 

 was mixed. The price of the gold was about the 10th century eight 

 times higher than that of silver, which proportion seems to have obtain- 

 ed throughout the whole of Europe during that period. 



The greater part of the ornaments dug out of the earth are made 

 of pure gold and silver, and it is even recorded in antient histories, 

 (Sogur,) that the silver was cooked (brent silfr.) It may be here noticed 

 as a curious fact, that many nations of no connexion whatever, and 

 at most different periods, have adopted gold rings of the above des- 

 cribed shape as the first equivalent of the price of things. Thus it is 

 said of Gideon, that after his victory over the Ismaelites, he took from 

 them a great number of gold rings, and Job received such rings from 

 his friends. They are represented on the antient monuments of Egypt, 

 are sometimes dug out of the earth in Ireland, Norway, Sweden and 

 Denmark, and are still in use in Abyssinia and Guinea. 



It is not quite certain which king of Norway first struck coins, 

 though it appears probable, that it was not done previously to Hakim 

 the Good,* (a. d. 938-963.) Of the coins of Hakim's successors, we 

 know only one of Olav. Tryggveson (995-1000), one or two of Count 

 Eric (1000-1016), one of Magnus the Good (1035-1047), and one 

 of Harold Hardrade (1074-1067), while in antient chronicles we find 

 no mention of Norwegian coins before Harold, of whom they state the 

 particular circumstance, that eight days after the celebration of 

 Christmas, he distributed some money to his soldiers, which according 

 to the same authorities were called Harold slata, (struck by Harold), and 

 for the greater part consisted of copper. The art of coining seems to 



* In the year 1834 a great variety of ornaments and of Byzantine, Arabic, Fran- 

 co-Gallic and Anglo-Saxon coins of the 8th and 9th centuries were found in Norway, 

 and from the fact, that no Scandinavian coins were among them, we may conclude, 

 that at the period, when those things were used as ornaments, that is, in the 8th and 9th 

 centuries, no Scandinavian coins were struck. It therefore becomes probable, that 

 this was not done before the middle of the 10th century. The most antient Norwegian 

 coins as yet discovered, are those of a Hakim ; but as two kings of his name have 

 reigned in that century, Hakim the Good and Hakim the Bad, who lived about the 

 end of the 10th century, it is doubtful to whom we are to assign them. 



3 N 



