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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tom Maringer, post: 181803, member: 7033&quot;]<b>The Story behind Leif Eiricsson&#039;s coins.</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Actually... no collar is used on these coins... they are &quot;broadstruck&quot; as some might say, &quot;splash strike&quot; is another way of saying it.&nbsp; They are struck on open dies with a flat face. The edge is permitted to squish out at the edges. At the point in time when these coins were made, I had not yet learned to use collars, but even if I had, collaring would be inappropriate for the style and period. </p><p><br /></p><p>As to the story question... Okay... you asked! (didn&#039;t want to force this on you... heh, heh)</p><p><br /></p><p>Okay... so... to start with, we&#039;ve all read the history books about how Leif Eiricsson, son of Eiric the Red of Greenland, made an attempt about 1000AD to settle in Vinland, somewhere on the East coast of North America, most likely in Newfoundland. The colony was short lived however, they were plagued by poor relations with the Skraelings (Native Americans) and had some internal troubles as well. Eventually they gave up on the colony and sailed back to Iceland. </p><p><br /></p><p>The story also tells that in order to obtain permission to attempt the colony, Leif sailed to Trondheim in Norway to have an audience with King Olav Trygvasson. When he arrived he found that Olav had recently converted to Christianity, and with the zealousness of all converts he decreed that Leif must convert also... on pain of death (a bit pushy, but, you know, the Vikings were like that). Leif was given fourteen days to think about it. History tells us that Leif did indeed convert... on the fourteenth day... and sailed off to meet his fate in the New World... </p><p><br /></p><p>But OUR story (heh, heh, heh... based on decipherment of a cryptic runestone, which I seem to have misplaced somewhere ... and a little wine-besotted imagination) is somewhat different! As it happened, Leif was not at ALL happy about having to give up his cherished Asatru religion. In fact, the Norse patron saint of warriors Thor had always treated Leif quite well and he couldn&#039;t countenance following some pantywaist messiah who wouldn&#039;t even defend his own honor. What kind of warrior is that? So Leif went along with the baptism just for show, but secretly kept his own counsels. Among other preparations, he had a small hoard of silver made up into a thousand coins by a local smith in the Korsvika district further up the fjord east of Trondheim where his ship was being prepared for the journey. </p><p><br /></p><p>In the design of the coins there are clues to the mind of Leif Eiricsson at the time. Item #1... Viking coins used symbolic &#039;text terminators&#039; to end strings of letters. Christian kings used a smll cross and pagan kings used the &#039;mjolnir&#039; or &quot;Hammer of Thor&quot;. If you look closely at the text terminators used on this coin you will see that they are in fact hammers! Item #2... Coins issued for rulers of colonies show the person bearing an axe in service to the king, while if issued in the king&#039;s own name it would show the three-headed sceptre of rulership. Leif&#039;s coin shows the sceptre, not the axe. Therefore, in the concise language of coins, Leif is at one time asserting his old religion, while declaring rebellion against King Olav and setting up his own kingdom! The idea was that his new kingdom would eventually grow to need a medium of exchange, so he wanted to have some on hand to get things started. He dreamed of eventually returning to Norway as a conqueror! </p><p><br /></p><p>But... as we know... things did not come out as planned. Once the decision to abandon the colony was made, Leif had to decide what to do with the coins. He could NOT return with them to Iceland or Norway for they would be damning evidence against him of his rebellious intent. In the decrepit state of the colony he also lacked the technology even to smelt them back into bars. Hoping against hope that he might yet return one day to re-establish his Kingdom of Vinland he buried them under a large rock near the village. But he never did return and the location of the hoard was lost to the mists of time.</p><p><br /></p><p>Fast forward now to the 1920s and one of many archaeological expeditions excavating ancient stone houses on Newfoundland. One digger was a college student doing some summer field study. While everyone else was having lunch, this young man was poking under a large strangely shaped rock and uncovered a tremendous hoard of silver coins!! They each weighed about 2.4 grammes and were made of 90% silver, about 19mm in diameter. Being young and insecure he was instantly overcome by the dragon sickness and quickly decided to tell no one but to keep the entire hoard for himself. With some difficulty he managed to conceal the find and transport the entire lot home with him. But then he became overcome with guilt, could not admit his wrongs, could not bear to sell a single coin, and ended up locking the entire hoard of away in a safe deposit box... telling no-one about it... seemingly forever. </p><p><br /></p><p>Fast forward again to the year 2000. I receive a phone call from a retired gentleman in Bella Vista Arkansas, who says that he had received the contents of his long-lost uncle&#039;s safe deposit box, a long rambling hand-written account of the find, and with it a rotting leather bag filled with a thousand small silver coins bearing the name of Leif Eiricsson. Since he had heard that I knew something about coins... could I help him decide what to do with them? ... &quot;Of course!&quot; says I! So rather than dribble them into the market at a high price... we decided to offer them at a quite reasonable rate so more people could obtain a piece of history. </p><p><br /></p><p>So... that&#039;s what fantasy coinmaking is all about... making coins that MIGHT have existed if history had just gone a little different... or maybe if we only knew the REAL story!</p><p><br /></p><p>Doing some in copper (bronze) was something of an afterthought in order to be able to offer some at a lesser price. I haven&#039;t quite figured out where they fit in the story.</p><p><br /></p><p>have fun! (I am!)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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