Here's an article from livescience.com that came in my email this morning so I thought I'd share it with y'all. https://www.livescience.com/silver-...7062b52439b82e6b252c84a38178fa5e9348288b21721
I would ask which one? The Vikings repeatedly sacked or threatened to sack Paris until one Viking group was offered Normandy in exchange for stopping other Viking attacks.
Interesting, the modern Polish town of Biskupiec is the formerly German town of Bischofsburg near Allenstein in what was German East Prussia (Ostpreussen). My family is from that region and, according to DNA research lived there since around AD 150 until AD 1945 . Biskupiec/Bischofsburg is a bit of a distance to the coast and the ancient trading town of Truso. Also in the 9th/10th century this region was not inhabited by Slavic tribes, as the article claims, but by the Baltic Prusians, or more precisely the Galindian subtribe. So for the time being I would not put too much confidence on a Viking connection.
A really remarkable find, on any number of counts. @midas1 posted a link to this yesterday, from a different source (which cited this one): https://www.cointalk.com/threads/viking-coins.381894/ [Edit:] What makes this hoard so unusual --besides the geography-- is that the coins are distinctly earlier than the commoner types of Charles the Bald, from when the 'danegelds' seriously accelerated. The 'temple' type is the commonest one of Charles's dad, Louis I. This actually helps confirm the professor's hypothesis, since the first danegeld in 845 happened at the very start of Charles's reign.
Cool! To add a coin to the thread, here's one of Odo, the Count of Paris who put a stop to the practice of paying off the Vikings, defending it by force of arms instead. He was elected king for his efforts. My notes: For his skill and bravery in resisting the attacks of the Vikings at the Siege of Paris, Odo was chosen by the western Franks to be their king following the removal of emperor Charles the Fat. The Siege of Paris of 885–86 was part of a Viking raid on the Seine, in the Kingdom of the West Franks. The siege was the most important event of the reign of Charles the Fat, and a turning point in the fortunes of the Carolingian dynasty and the history of France. It also proved to the Franks the strategic importance of Paris, at the time only a small island town. With hundreds of ships, and possibly tens of thousands of men, the Vikings arrived outside Paris in late November 885, at first demanding tribute. This was denied by Odo, then Count of Paris, despite that he only could assemble a couple hundred soldiers to defend the city. The Vikings attacked with a variety of siege engines, but failed to break through the city walls after some days of intense attacks. The siege was upheld after the initial attacks, but without any significant offence for months thereafter. As the siege went on, most of the Vikings left Paris to pillage further upriver - among those remaining were Rollo, future Count of Rouens and founding Norman (see coin #255, of Rollo's grandson). The Vikings made a final unsuccessful attempt to take the city during the summer, and in October, Charles the Fat arrived with his army. To the frustration of the Parisians who had fought for a long time to defend the city, Charles stopped short of attacking the Viking besiegers, and instead allowed them to sail further up the Seine to raid Burgundy (which was in revolt), as well as promising a payment of 700 livres (pounds; 257 kg). Odo, highly critical of this, tried his best to defy the promises of Charles, and when Charles died in 888, Odo was elected king of West Francia, the first non-Carolingian king of the Franks, and the first from the Robertian dynasty. West Francia evolved into the state of France, and the first Capetian king, Hugh Capet, was a descendant of Odo's brother, Robert I. Odo established Paris as the kingdom's capital.
Terrific historical context, @Severus Alexander. And a fantastic Odo. Nearest I have are examples of the subsequent feudal immobilizations of the +<> D <> + monogram. ...Which start to look pretty funny after a minute (...please read, century or two). The Robertians weren't the only ones in Francia to expand their fortunes through active resistance to Viking attacks. The same thing happened, from the later 9th century, with the counts of Anjou. ...Who went on to become a regional feudal superpower, and eventual kings of England.
Tell it!!! This is what makes, for instance, the people here who are so deep into South and East Asian coins so great. ...All the way from the Baktrians to what corresponds to the Middle Ages. Everything I know about that stuff, I learned it right here.