Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;+VGO.DVCKS, post: 7652277, member: 110504&quot;]Cool example, [USER=106975]@Clonecommanderavgvsvs[/USER].&nbsp; [USER=87080]@TheRed[/USER] just gifted me with a Class 5 of John, from the cool mint of Lynn, in Norfolk.&nbsp; (Between available hardware and aptitude, it would take a second life to take my own pics.)</p><p>But I would swear that someone here, not that long ago, mentioned that the English fractions were often (at least) made at the mint itself.&nbsp; Tried to find the thread without initial success.</p><p>But here&#039;s a Samanid dirham, from Central Asia /mostly Afghanistan, c. earlier 10th c., with a provenance from Estonia.&nbsp; By way of the Viking trade with the region, truckloads of these (in whole and in part) have been found from Russia to Scandinavia to England, along with the occasional example from (Norse) Dublin.</p><p>It&#039;s another variant of the phenomenon, known as &#039;hacksilv[/-b]er.&#039;&nbsp; The truly amazing thing is that the Vikings were conducting long-distance trade on this scale, via rivers and literally overland, before they themselves had a monetary economy.&nbsp; ...Yup, take out the scales; now we&#039;re happy.&nbsp; The relative unevennes of the cuts serves to emphasize that the sole criterion was weight, rather than fractions of an effectively irrelevant denomination.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1315626[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1315627[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in