Last year I bought two denarii from Trajan and Geta and came up with the idea to see if the types had ever been found in Sweden. As some CT members already know I'm Scandinavian and I have never seen any posts about this subject so far on this site. So I did some research that might be of interest to someone else than just myself. The start of the viking era is dated to the sack of Lindisfarne 793 AD and the first minted Swedish coin is dated to Olof Skötkonung, late 900 (the first swedish christian viking king) but roman denarii reached Scandinavia many centuries prior to that. In the pre-viking era people lived in settlements or trading villages and none of the Scandinavian countries we know of today had yet been formed. It’s believed that trade did not exist with the roman empire or other tribes during the pre viking era so the denarii have most likely never been used as means of payment in Scandinavia. But excavations indicate that people traveled to serve as mercenary soldiers for the roman empire. Payments were done in silver and gold (solidus) and that’s how roman coins were brought back to Scandinavia. Around 8000 denarii have been found in Sweden to present day; 7000 on Gotland alone (the largest island in the Baltic Sea). Finds range from the reign of Nero to Gordian III with a few stray finds of republican coins and the majority dated to the Nerva- Antonine dynasty. All denarii are heavily worn, especially those found on Gotland making attribution hard or impossible. That denarii dated later than 200 AD are rare is explained by the debasement of the denarii and the introduction of the Antoninianus by Caracalla (1 Antoninianus representing 2 denarii but with a silver content of 1.5 denarii). We know that the Romans were aware of the debasement of the denarii and I would assume so were the Scandinavians based on the finds. From (page 28):Roman_Denarii_2013_2_Lasvanlig.pdf (su.se) On Gotland gold (solidus) has been found together with denarii and we can make the conclusion that the coins were brought here late roman time. But on the mainland denarii are rarely found together with gold and have possibly been brought to Sweden much earlier? In Sweden there's been a law since 1600 (the other Scandinavian countries have similar laws) that all found silver and gold (treasuries) must be confiscated and turned into the state. Probably that's why we have so many intact finds in Scandinavia which serve as a good resource for numismatists, archeologists and historians. So how did it go, did I find any of my coins in Swedish hoards or stray finds? Yes and no. I could find Trajan in a hoard from Gotland (Hogrän par., Djupbrunns) but my Geta, I couldn't find in any. But I found out that barbaric imitations has been made of the Geta type and 298 specimens where found in the Reka Devnia Hoard. RIC II Trajan 119 Minted: Rome 103 - 111 AD Obverse: IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P: Bust of Trajan, laureate, draped, right (sometimes draped on left shoulder) Reverse: COS V P P S P Q R OPTIMO PRINC: Aequitas, draped, seated left on chair without back, holding scales in right hand and cornucopiae in left RIC IV Geta 18 Minted: Rome, 200 - 202 AD Obverse: P SEPT GETA CAES PONT: Bust of Geta, bare-headed, draped, right Reverse: PRINC IVVENTVTIS: Geta, in military attire, standing left, holding branch in right hand and spear in left hand; behind, trophy Stockholm Numismatic Institute has an ongoing project to publish all recorded finds of Roman coins in Sweden on the internet which I follow. They're all written in english so you could read as well if you would like. Roman Denarii - Numismatiska forskningsgruppen (su.se)
Very interesting, if the coins got as far as Sweden, can you imagine the trek that would be. No GPS No Siri. No McDonalds for a hungry traveler.
Yeah it's very cool, considering how far the vikings reached I'm not that suprised if people managed to get far out in europe prior to that.
When I saw the title, I thought "Did @svessien lose part of his collection?" I know that quite a few early Islamic coins (Abbasids, Samanids, etc.) have been found in Scandinavia, so it makes sense that earlier coins could occur there too. And Roman coins have turned up in India and Sri Lanka, confirming that trade routes went across the Indian Ocean. Even if most people didn't travel much, there were still at least a few people making pretty epic journeys back then.
Years ago, I asked an archeaologist working at the local museum if they had found any Roman coins in Rogaland, Norway, where I live. He answered that they had found very few, and that the earliest was a Hadrian denarius. At the same time there are many indications, among those finds of likely Baltic amber, that there has been trade with the continent spanning thousands of years back; at least to the Nordic bronze age. Bronze horns, found at Fluberget, Revheim, about 300 meters from my old high school. They are dated to 1000-700 years BC, and are very similar in style and making to horns found in Jylland, Denmark.
In Denmark around 6000 Denarii have been found, and probably tons of coins are still hidden in the Scandinavian soil as the pre-viking era population liked to dig down their treasuries. If I remember correctly in Scandinavia most gold coins have been found in Denmark. But probably wasn't used for trade instead the gold has been reworked into jewelry and perhaps hoarded and used as savings or sacrifices? Here's a diagram of two of the largest denarii finds in Denmark, Smørenge and Råmose. The consistency of the finds indicates that they probably were buried at different times. https://www.nationalbanken.dk/da/publikationer/jubilaeumsboeger/Documents/KAP2_Denar til daler_Danmarks mønthistorie indtil 1550_Danmarks Nationalbank_NY.pdf Hassleskatten was found close to where I grew up in Sweden and consists of objects, many probably made in Greece and/or Italy that are believed to have been sacrificed in the river, around 600-500 BC.
