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‘terminus post quem' of thc find. This scems to bc practically identical with the datę of thc deposition of thc hoard, sincc coins, stemming from differcnt sources, likc thc English, German and Arabie specimens, tend to have thc same end-dates when occurring together in Danish finds.⁶ Operating with samples of hoards, the dating should be no major problem, and except for some spccial difficulties of the ninth ccntury only hoards containing coins are included. For thc ninth century the rclative number of coin-hoards is much smaller than for the tenth ccntury, and for the sake of comparison the first-mentioncd sample is standardised accordingly.

The degree of aggression (K) is based on thc ratio between the inland finds (five or morę kilomctres from the coast) and all finds; consequently thc morę inland finds, the higher the degree of aggression. The relative size of the silver stock is determined by dividing thc total number of finds (N) for each timc period by the concomitant K-value, k\ or:

„    N²

Amount of silver=N^-(Nj_n|_anc|-rN) =    -

^N inland

For thc ninth century we use a standard K-value for both periods, calculated from all finds owing to thc smali number of hoards. The resulting curve of the amount of silver shows a moderatc stock for the first half of the ninth century, diminishing in the second half (Fig. 37). At the beginning of the tenth century the silver rises drastically, dropping to its lowcst value in about 950. (The peak in 900, madę up entirely of eastern (Arabie) silvcr, corresponds strikingly to the tradition of a prescnce of Swcdish lords at Hedeby in the same period.) A new, but much lower, peak lies in about 1000 A.D., at the time of the large English payments of silver to King Sven and his son Knud; this peak also is foliowed by a decline. It is significant that the early west European payments to the Danish Vikings, especially in the late ninth century, have little or no impact on the size of the stock. Apparently the means were spent abroad, as have been suggested on other grounds.⁷

It should be added that exactly the same results are obtained by using the grammes of silvcr instead of the number of finds for the N-values of the N-^-K formula (K still calculated on the basis of number of finds), as is shown by a study of the tenth and early cleventh century alone (Fig. 37 B). Morę interesting is the fact that another study, for the period 900 to 1040, showed that the averagc weight of the hoards follows the same main trends as above, except that the drop after 1000 is lacking (Fig. 38). In the periods of depression the silver stock of each individual gets smaller, and so concomitantly do thc hoards. The observation conceming thc early eleventh century implies that the silver was concentrated into fewer hands than previously.

As noted, the late ninth-century payments to Danish Yikings do not