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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Topcat7, post: 2876084, member: 73372&quot;]<font size="5"><b>Status and bullion</b></font></p><p>The Viking Age saw major changes in the economy of Scandinavia. At the beginning of the Viking Age, few people in Scandinavia had any knowledge of coinage. Some foreign coins entered the region as a result of trading contacts both with western Europe and the Islamic world to the east. However, except in major trading centres such as Hedeby and Ribe, in Denmark, the idea of coinage as such was unfamiliar. Coins were valued only for their weight in silver or gold, and circulated alongside many other forms of precious metal.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is what is known as a bullion economy, in which the weight and the purity of the precious metal are what is important, not what form the metal takes. Far and away the most common metal in the economy was silver, although gold was also used. Silver circulated in the form of bars, or ingots, as well as in the form of jewellery and ornaments. Large pieces of jewellery were often chopped up into smaller pieces known as &#039;hack-silver&#039; to make up the exact weight of silver required. Imported coins and fragments of coins were also used for the same purpose. Traders carried small scales which could measure weight very accurately, so it was possible to have a very precise system of trade and exchange even without a regular coinage.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]688381[/ATTACH]</p><p>(Just think. Some Viking took out his axe and &#039;chopped&#039; off this piece of silver to pay for something.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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