Fig. 1031. Fig. 1032.
Silver coin of Ethelred. Real size. Found near Stockholm, with 737 Arabic, German, and old English coins, and one coin of the Swedish king, Olaf Skautkonung, some fragments of silver bracelets, &c.—Upland, Sweden.
Coins of the ninth and the earlier part of the tenth century, are extremely rare, though England was much ravaged by the northern countries. I think no coins have been found thus far in Sweden before Alfred’s date, and only three date before 950, but new discoveries may in time bring others to light. In Denmark only a few hundred English coins have been found; of the time of Ethelred and his successors about three thousand in Norway.
The earliest English and Frankish coins, strange as it may appear, have only been found in Sweden and Norway, but even these do not amount to more than fifty or sixty; none have been discovered in Denmark, and previously to the years 780 to 800, no specimen of Merovingian or English coins have been found in the North.
The number of German is very great, and more than fifty thousand have been found in Sweden and the island of Götland; they date chiefly from the middle of the tenth to the middle of the eleventh century, and are sometimes found to the number of one or two thousand together.[[174]]
Fig. 1033. Fig. 1034.
German silver coin of Henry of Bavaria, end of tenth century.—Gotland. Real size.
The intercourse with the Byzantine empire which had taken place in the earlier centuries continued for a long time, and a great number of Northmen entered the service of the Byzantine or Greek emperors, as seen in the Sagas.
Fig. 1035. Fig. 1036.
Byzantine coins (948–949). Real size. Struck by the emperors Constantine X. and Romanus III. Found with a necklace, 15 bracelets, 2 buckles, 2 spiral bracelets, 3 perfect and 360 imperfect Arabic coins, all of silver, and all of which were under an iron dish.—Björko, Upland.
