446 Descriptive list of some Coins. [No. 138 



have been earlier introduced into Norway, than into Sweden or 

 Denmark ; for the most antient coins of Sweden are those of Olaus 

 Skotkonung (993-1024), and of Denmark those of Sveno Tueskjaeg 

 (991-1019), on the coins of whom the name of the same mint-master 

 is inscribed as the coins of Olav Tryggveson (995-1000); but in 

 Norway coins were already struck under the reign of Hakim the Good 

 or the Bad, which latter reigned between 978-995. 



No coin, exceeding the value of a denar, seems to have been struck 

 in Norway from the commencement of their coinage to at least the first 

 years of the 13th century, and this sort of money apparently was then 

 rnpst common all over Europe. The shape of the types was usulaly 

 borrowed from English coins, and the first coiners are evidently from 

 England. Godvine at least, who towards the close of the 10th cen- 

 tury superintended the mints of the kings of Norway, Sweden and 

 Denmark, bears an Anglo-Saxon name, and Ulf, the mint-master of 

 Harold Hardrade, inserted the preposition "on" on the Norwegian 

 coins. The obverse of these coins accordingly represented the bust or 

 the head of the king together with his title and name, while the re- 

 verse contained a cross and the name of the mint-master, or the town, 

 or of both in the Latin language. I may here notice, that with regard to 

 the antient coins of Norway, the same observation obtains as to those 

 of England. The more antient they are the better is their execution, 

 as the remains of Roman art in the earlier centuries of our era were 

 more and more overgrown by fresh influxes of barbarians. In the 

 period we allude to, only a few traces of the Roman way of striking 

 coins had remained, and still these coins are much superior to those of 

 the 12th century. 



Beside the coins bearing types on either side, a large number of 

 small, thin, and hollow coins were struck in Norway at that period, 

 which were called bracteato (from bractea, a thin leaf.) It is, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Holmboe, a common error to ascribe these coins at an 

 earlier period to Scandinavia than to Germany, as on a careful exami- 

 nation it appears, that no coin of this shape can be assigned to Nor- 

 way previously to the middle of the 12th century, while the Germans 

 used them already in the 11th century. 



The collection, presented to the Society, consists almost entirely of 

 such bracteati, or hollow coins. They are very thin and brittle, and the 



