Speaker
Gitte Ingvardson
(Historical Museum at Lund University)
Description
Coins are money but money is not limited to coins. If we disregard this fact, research in monetarisation seems inextricably linked to investigating the degree of coin use in societies. This paper suggests the introduction of a non-minted currency in the Baltic Sea region at the turn of the first millennium. Based on evidence of the Bornholm (Denmark) Viking hoards it explores whether this currency – standardised melts of purified silver – triggered a monetarisation process on the island of Bornholm in the first decades of the 11th century. Furthermore, the nature and use of melts is put into perspective by comparing it to another contemporary currency, the Anglo-Scandinavian imitations minted in Lund and Sigtuna in present-day Sweden.
Primary author
Gitte Ingvardson
(Historical Museum at Lund University)
