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160 The Viking Age in Denmark

Figurc 50 Distribution of Arabie coins in a late tenth-century silver-hoard from Yaalse, island of Falstcr

transactions within the Islamie world, the largest Russian hoards do not exceed forty kgs, while the Scandinavian finds make up, at most, one-fifth of this, or eight kgs of silver. Furthermore, the few Arabie coins in western Europę almost all stem from the early tenth century, corresponding to the noted peak and subsequent to the raids. Finally, to judge by the number of Arabie coins found in Scandinavia, the ninth-century types make up only 10 per cent of the total amount, and the peak of the early ninth century may have been less prominent here than in Russia.⁴⁴ This is seen also from the silver curve above for Denmark, though it should be remembered that the coins were morę commonly turned into artefacts in the ninth than in the tenth century.

In Fig. 43 we give the relative percentages of Arabie, German, English and Nordic coins for the Danish hoards of the period 900 to 1040. It clearly shows how drastically the percentages of Arabie coins were dropping in the middle of the tenth century, the period of depression of the silver stock. We have already discussed some of the conseąuences of this decline, which corresponds well with west, and especially south-west, Russia. Denmark may thus have received the last Arabie coins through Poland, an area with intensive contacts with southernmost Scandinavia by the late tenth century.

The mid-tenth century saw other changes also in the composition of the hoards. In a study ofthe eastern Danish provinces, and particularly of Skane, it has been shown that the weight of minted silver in the finds, vis-a-vis jewellery, was rising drastically at this time, to reach almost 100 per cent after 1000 A.D. (Fig. 53).⁴⁵ This demonstrates how investment in trinkets gave way to silver cash, a much morę flexible means of exchange, and how transactions involving coins were fast becoming a day-to-day phenomenon for still larger parts of the population. The late tenth century also has the first mass-produced local coinage. A parallel, though slightly earlier, development involves hack-silver, the percentage of which, vis-a-vis the unbroken artefacts, is rising at the same time as the single pieces are becoming smaller.⁴⁶

The disappearance of the Arabie flow of silver was also a finał

departurc from an undeveloped economy, based on barter, where smaller exchanges did not involve coins and wherc larger transactions were probably often of the naturę of gift-exchanges, wholc artefacts being used as a means of exchange.⁴⁷ It is hardly an accident that the few pure coin hoards of the tenth century cluster in the south-western part of Denmark, with its morę developed economic institutions, including towns.⁴⁸ On the other hand, finds dominated by whole artefacts, and usually with few or no coins, are most common on the Sjaelland island group, a wealthy area, as we have seen, with a Iow

600-n

coins

400-200-

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700

Figurę 51 Distribution of (Arabie) coins in an early ninth-ccntury hoard from Umm-Hajarah, north-cast Syria

800    AD

Figurę 52 Distribution of (Arabie) coins in a late ninth-century hoard from Susa, south-west Persia