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Samanid coins (c. 864 - 1005). Multiple dirhams.
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<p>[QUOTE="+VGO.DVCKS, post: 7945270, member: 110504"][USER=44316]@Valentinian[/USER], Many thanks for contributing this valuable OP and thread, replete with typically solid research.</p><p>Here are the two examples I can find pics of at the moment. They're both reposts, but are fun for confirming what you said about the nature and scope of the Viking /Rus' trade.</p><p>First, emphasizing the fact that as of the earlier 10th century, the Vikings were engaging in long-range, transcontinental trade in the effective absence of a monetary economy --and, as you noted, using Samanid dirhams as bullion-- here's my example of Rus' /Samanid 'hacksilver.' Regarding the contrast with, for instance, Anglo-Saxon cut fractions of pennies, common from later in the century, the raggedness of the cut has everything to do with the fact that, once they got into a Viking merchant's hands, the coins summarily ended their status as a known denomination, and literally became their weight in silver. This example was from a dealer based in Estonia, on the eastern Baltic --a neglected field of Viking activity, if there ever was one.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1375876[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1375877[/ATTACH]</p><p>A Danish friend sent me the link to this website, auf Dansk (sorry for the linguistic mixed metaphor); from around p.132, you get a responsible overview of the known distribution of Samanid dirhams across the Viking world, including a map.</p><p><a href="https://www.nationalbanken.dk/da/publikationer/jubilaeumsboeger/Documents/KAP3_Denar%20til%20daler_Danmarks%20m%C3%B8nthistorie%20indtil%201550_Danmarks%20Nationalbank.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.nationalbanken.dk/da/publikationer/jubilaeumsboeger/Documents/KAP3_Denar%20til%20daler_Danmarks%20m%C3%B8nthistorie%20indtil%201550_Danmarks%20Nationalbank.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.nationalbanken.dk/da/publikationer/jubilaeumsboeger/Documents/KAP3_Denar til daler_Danmarks mønthistorie indtil 1550_Danmarks Nationalbank.pdf</a></p><p>...This is a fun one. Another Samanid dirham, ostensibly issued (according to people who knew Much more than I did) by a scarce emir (a usurper who only lasted a year or two) in maybe the 920's CE. Maybe a forgery.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1375881[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1375882[/ATTACH]</p><p>The fun part, though, is that the detectorist on UK ebay who sold me this insisted that it was found in Worcester.</p><p>Anywhere in the British Isles, Samanid dirhams are very thin on (or even, up to now, in) the ground. Including Norse Dublin and Hiberno-Norse York-- although isolated examples have turned up as far afield as Iceland. Back to Worcester, neither the town nor the county were anywhere near the 'Danelaw,' or any other part of England conspicuous for Scandinavian settlement. ...Except that, roundly a century after the issue of this one, Cnut /Knut of England (1016-1036) actively encouraged the settlement of this and neighboring parts of the East Midlands by first-generation Scandinavians. ...Hypothetically, that kind of interval might explain the level of wear.</p><p>...Right, Samanid dirhams only reached Scandinavia by way of Kievan Rus'. Here's a map I found:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1375893[/ATTACH]</p><p>One impression I get is the remarkable level of cultural cohesion in the Viking world over the 10th and into the 11th centuries. This isn't reducible to the numismatic evidence, or its economic connotations. The Rus' prince Jaroslav the Wise, of Novgorod and Kiev (1019-1054)st half of the 11th century, harbored three future kings of Norway: Olaf II, Magnus the Good, and Harald Hardraada, of 1066 fame. Likewise, some of Knut's best friends were Norse, rather than Danish. And as late as the aftermath of Hastings, never mind Stamford Bridge, Waltheof, the half-Danish earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria (including York), employed an Iceland skald (court poet), who is quoted in Snorri Sturlusson's <u>Heimskringla</u>, an earlier 13th-century cycle of sagas about the Norse kings.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="+VGO.DVCKS, post: 7945270, member: 110504"][USER=44316]@Valentinian[/USER], Many thanks for contributing this valuable OP and thread, replete with typically solid research. Here are the two examples I can find pics of at the moment. They're both reposts, but are fun for confirming what you said about the nature and scope of the Viking /Rus' trade. First, emphasizing the fact that as of the earlier 10th century, the Vikings were engaging in long-range, transcontinental trade in the effective absence of a monetary economy --and, as you noted, using Samanid dirhams as bullion-- here's my example of Rus' /Samanid 'hacksilver.' Regarding the contrast with, for instance, Anglo-Saxon cut fractions of pennies, common from later in the century, the raggedness of the cut has everything to do with the fact that, once they got into a Viking merchant's hands, the coins summarily ended their status as a known denomination, and literally became their weight in silver. This example was from a dealer based in Estonia, on the eastern Baltic --a neglected field of Viking activity, if there ever was one. [ATTACH=full]1375876[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1375877[/ATTACH] A Danish friend sent me the link to this website, auf Dansk (sorry for the linguistic mixed metaphor); from around p.132, you get a responsible overview of the known distribution of Samanid dirhams across the Viking world, including a map. [URL='https://www.nationalbanken.dk/da/publikationer/jubilaeumsboeger/Documents/KAP3_Denar%20til%20daler_Danmarks%20m%C3%B8nthistorie%20indtil%201550_Danmarks%20Nationalbank.pdf']https://www.nationalbanken.dk/da/publikationer/jubilaeumsboeger/Documents/KAP3_Denar til daler_Danmarks mønthistorie indtil 1550_Danmarks Nationalbank.pdf[/URL] ...This is a fun one. Another Samanid dirham, ostensibly issued (according to people who knew Much more than I did) by a scarce emir (a usurper who only lasted a year or two) in maybe the 920's CE. Maybe a forgery. [ATTACH=full]1375881[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1375882[/ATTACH] The fun part, though, is that the detectorist on UK ebay who sold me this insisted that it was found in Worcester. Anywhere in the British Isles, Samanid dirhams are very thin on (or even, up to now, in) the ground. Including Norse Dublin and Hiberno-Norse York-- although isolated examples have turned up as far afield as Iceland. Back to Worcester, neither the town nor the county were anywhere near the 'Danelaw,' or any other part of England conspicuous for Scandinavian settlement. ...Except that, roundly a century after the issue of this one, Cnut /Knut of England (1016-1036) actively encouraged the settlement of this and neighboring parts of the East Midlands by first-generation Scandinavians. ...Hypothetically, that kind of interval might explain the level of wear. ...Right, Samanid dirhams only reached Scandinavia by way of Kievan Rus'. Here's a map I found: [ATTACH=full]1375893[/ATTACH] One impression I get is the remarkable level of cultural cohesion in the Viking world over the 10th and into the 11th centuries. This isn't reducible to the numismatic evidence, or its economic connotations. The Rus' prince Jaroslav the Wise, of Novgorod and Kiev (1019-1054)st half of the 11th century, harbored three future kings of Norway: Olaf II, Magnus the Good, and Harald Hardraada, of 1066 fame. Likewise, some of Knut's best friends were Norse, rather than Danish. And as late as the aftermath of Hastings, never mind Stamford Bridge, Waltheof, the half-Danish earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria (including York), employed an Iceland skald (court poet), who is quoted in Snorri Sturlusson's [U]Heimskringla[/U], an earlier 13th-century cycle of sagas about the Norse kings.[/QUOTE]
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Samanid coins (c. 864 - 1005). Multiple dirhams.
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