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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;+VGO.DVCKS, post: 7885400, member: 110504&quot;]...Wow.&nbsp; For the last while, real life over here has been intervening more aggressively than usual, but it&#039;s fantastic to see what everyone else has been doing.&nbsp; A Lot of Really, Really exceptional stuff.</p><p>[USER=74712]@FitzNigel[/USER], the article proposing the reattribtution of your (right, other main) issue of Richard I of Normandy was in two parts across two years, which didn&#039;t help to advance the argument.&nbsp; But one thing to observe in reference to 19th-century French line drawings is that, as such, their accuracy, at least in terms other than style, shouldn&#039;t be any real cause for concern.&nbsp; Along with his relative comprehensiveness, and a pretty impressive rate of accuracy in the attributions, the similar, contemporary renderings of Poey d&#039;Avant made his book a standard reference through the following century.</p><p>More broadly, I&#039;m always impressed by the methological standards of the people who were doing this at the time.&nbsp; It&#039;s reminiscent of the more responsible studies of local English antiquities that came out between at least the earlier 19th century, into the earlier 20th.&nbsp; It&#039;s important to recognize the distinction between methodology and the incontestable limitations of available data (thank you, in our context, starting with hoards, and archaeological sophistication generally).&nbsp; If the coin came from someone&#039;s cabinet, you can be pretty confident that it&#039;s accurately reproduced.&nbsp; By this time, numismatists were happy to conform to 19th-century scientific standards, such as they were.</p><p>The second part of DeShazo&#039;s article (which I still highly recommend --with a measure of personal bias) got deeper into the various, eventful interactions between Lothaire and Richard I, notably from Dudo of St. Quentin&#039;s relatively comprehensive, (?)comparatively reliable chronicle of the period.&nbsp; Citing the plates in Dumas (<i>Tresor</i>), DeShazo also noted the generally better state of preservation of this type than examples of Richard&#039;s &#039;temple&#039; issue, suggesting a later mintage.</p><p>Here&#039;s one that just arrived.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1360082[/ATTACH] Magnus &#039;the Good,&#039; King of Norway 1035-1047, King of Denmark from 1042.&nbsp; AR penning, probably of Roskilde, Denmark, imitating prototypes of Harthacnut of (England and) Denmark (1035-1042).&nbsp; The triquetra on the reverse is a common Scandinavian motif, showing up on runestones as well as coins.</p><p>Funly, Magnus was the half-brother-in-law of this guy, Ordulf /Otto (here &quot;ODDO,&quot; retrograde), Duke of Saxony (which included some of eastern Frisia) 1055/6-1072.&nbsp; Magnus was a son of Olaf II of Norway (&#039;The Saint /The Stout&#039;), by a mistress; Ordulf married one of his legitimate daughters, memorably named Ulfhild (&quot;Wolf Battle&quot;).</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1360095[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1360096[/ATTACH]</p><p>The dynastic connection evokes the transition from the Scandinavian kingdoms effectively being &#039;rogue states&#039; to being active, arguably constructive participants in &#039;mainstream&#039; northern European politics.&nbsp; Part of what I like so much about the late phases of the &#039;Viking Age&#039; is how dynamic this whole process was; less one of unqualified decline, than of an active redirection in focus.</p><p>Back to the Magnus example, the light weight and module, and possible billon content evoke the lower standards of early Scandinavian coins more broadly --right, running heavily to imitations of AEthelred II.&nbsp; There&#039;s even a fun bit in <u>St. Olaf&#039;s Saga</u>, from Snorri Sturlusson&#039;s <u>Heimskringla</u>, where Olaf sends tax collectors to northern Norway.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;(....) Leif went up to Thrand to receive the purse [of taxes], and carried it toward the front of the booth where it was light, poured it into his shield, rooted in it with his hand, and told Karl to look at the silver.&nbsp; They examined it for a while.&nbsp; Then Karl asked what Leif thought about it.</p><p>&quot;He replied, &#039;It seems to me that all the bad money in the North Islands has been brought here.&#039;</p><p>&quot;Thrand overheard that and said, &#039;Don&#039;t you like the silver, Leif?&#039;</p><p>&quot;&#039;No indeed,&#039; he said.&quot;</p><p>(Trans. by Lee M. Hollander, (1964 /) 1991, UT /Austin.)&nbsp; --Why are so many Viking-Age coins peck-marked?&nbsp; Look no further![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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