Viking 'piggy bank' hoard discovered on Isle of Man

https://www.livescience.com/viking-...84a38178fa5e9348288b21721&M_BT=21757357987857

 

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Many thanks for posting this, @love old coins. For such a relatively small hoard, the geographic range of the coins, contrasting with the tight chronological one, is really striking.

 

The parallel the researcher drew between the cut pieces of silver ("hack silver") and cryptocurrency and bitcoin is a big stretch and silly. A parallel with silver bullion (bars or coins) would be apt.

By the way, those small pieces of silver which needed to be weighed are like gold coins in the third century and siliquae in the late 4th and 5th centuries which scholars think needed to be weighed. Serious collectors know the weights of those coins are all over the map and their precious-metal value was not close to constant. Maybe the portrait of the emperor guaranteed the purity of an aureus, but the weight of an aureus of Gallienus did not adhere to a standard like later Byzantine gold did.

 

You're quite welcome...glad you enjoyed it.

 

I have to agree with you on that but just like anything else we read these days, sometimes you have to overlook the ridiculous part to read the worthwhile part!

 

No Eirik Bloodaxe pennies. 3 Norwegian collectors giving a sigh of relief