Viking coinage

Viking coins are those coins designed, minted and circulated as currency by Viking rulers during the Viking Age of northern Europe.

The Viking kingdom of Jorvik (York) in northern England, for example, employed skilled craftsmen and moneyers to produce coinage during the first half of the 10th century. Despite the fact that many coins minted for Scandinavian rulers across the Viking world were almost purely imitative of other contemporary Western European currencies, several of the York designs are nonetheless unique for their time, bearing realistic motifs that include a sword, bow and arrow, a standard, a bird (perhaps one of Odin's ravens?) and Thor's Hammer.

References

• Blackburn, M. (2005). "Currency under the Vikings. Part I: Guthrum and the Earliest Danelaw Coinages", British Numismatic Journal 75 (2005), pp. 18–43.
• Blackburn, M. (2006). "Currency under the Vikings. Part II: The Two Scandinavian Kingdoms of the Danelaw, c. 895-954", British Numismatic Journal 76 (2006), pp. 204–226.
• Blackburn, M. (2007). "Currency under the Vikings. Part III: Ireland, Wales, Isle of Man and Scotland in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries", British Numismatic Journal 77 (2007), pp. 119–149.
• Blackburn, M. (2011). Viking Coinage and Currency in the British Isles, [British Numismatic Society Special Publication 7], London, 2011.
• Dolley, Michael (1965). Viking Coins of the Danelaw and of Ireland, London: British Museum, 1965.
• Gooch, M.L. (2012). Money and Power in the Viking Kingdom of York, c. 895-954, University of Durham unpublished PhD thesis, 2012.