Ones Heritage In Coins

Interesting read...I saw the title and wondered about the same locale--I have ancestors from Skåne.


Roman and Islamic coins found their way to Scandinavia, but the first 'Viking' coins came from the later, Christianized period. Norway and Sweden began minting coins around 995 AD, which were copies of Anglo-Saxon designs, which were already in use. Before then, Viking money was often roughly shaped pieces of silver, or loops of gold--probably worn on a cord. Here's a nicer example of wearable money from 850 AD.



I have a photoessay of Viking money here, pictures taken at Oslo's Cultural History museum. Here are links to part II and part III.

Interesting..I have been doing alot of reading about trying to find my origins. I have green eyes and hoped I would be able to track the mutation, with a little research and sources provided through wikipedia's sources. Green eyes find there origin in Central Asia during the late bronze age. Then I started reading about 4000 year old Europoid mummies discovered in Western China. Thats wild!

There were people there clearly before the Vikings but it doesn't mean they were necessarily monetarized.

I find it amazing to think that approximately 5,000 generations lived their lifes before dreaming up money and I wonder how many times it was independantly invented since it seems such an obvious idea...(the world after all has had pockets of people that remained cut off from the rest, lived and died maybe undiscovered, who knows what occurred before historical records began?)

Why mint coins it seems a heck of a lot easier to show up and take them...Great background information, maybe my people where not all that civilized as to make fine works of art in antiquity, ah well what can you do? Seeing as I don't have a long boat full of cash, I suppose I should just do what my ancestors did... head out, and procure easily accessible coins.

I live in Norway, and my ancestors can be traced back to the early 1100's here in Norway. And I'm a very serious coin collector, I'm so lucky to have a very early bracteat with a capital B in the middle, it's from 1100's like my ancestors. The Norwegian minted coins from that era is unbelievable rare. Even the highest expert on those coins who is responsible for the coins from the "viking era" on the Norwegian coin gallery in Oslo have many coins even he hasn't seen. Like the wery few coins minted in Trondheim just besides the Nidaros Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace are located side by side in the middle of the city centre. The cathedral, built from 1070 on, is the most important Gothic monument in Norway and was Northern Europe's most important Christian pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages,[17] with pilgrimage routes leading to it from Oslo in southern Norway and from the Jämtland and Värmland regions of Sweden. Today, it is the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world, and the second largest in Scandinavia. Also the oldest parts of the cathedral consist of the octagon with its surrounding ambulatory. This was the site of the original high altar, with the reliquary casket of Saint Olaf, and choir. Design of the octagon may have been inspired by the Corona of Canterbury Cathedral, although octagonal shrines have a long history in Christian architecture. Similarly, the choir shows English influence, and appears to have been modeled after the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral.

Last month I had the luck to win a small piece of my heritage, this AE Half Chalkus of King Tigranes II of Armenia (Herakles type, Bedoukian 101), 95-56 BCE, from a "Gitbud & Naumann" auction.

Wow,OK. This one would be nice if I could afford it.

http://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/apo...Default.aspx