Islamic Dirham in England
Thousands and thousands of these coins passed through Scandinavian hands during the height of viking exploration between the 800s and 1000s. They were spread all throughout viking lands, including areas that were subject to raids rather than settlement.[2] In general, coins used by the Norse are most often found in buried hoards, rather than in individual finds like the one presented here. The hoards were the results of lucrative trade deals or maybe successful raids, but the presence of this single coin in what was once a Norse controlled area of England could support their use as money. Currency, however, was not a concept the Norse utilized until well into the Viking Age.[3] Instead, the Norse participated in a bullion economy, one that relied on the weight and quality of precious metals instead of their form (e.g. coins). Once Vikings started receiving large influxes of foreign coins, some from other European polities paying tribute (aka Danegeld) to keep the Vikings away that economic structure changed.[4] Through interactions like these and the previously mentioned trade, the Norse became increasingly familiar with monetary-based systems.
Settlement in England, where coinage had been used for centuries and was the norm, provided the real catalyst for evolution away from the bullion system. It was easier to adopt the coinage system than try to impose their own bartering system. Norse in England eventually began minting their own coins by the late 800s.[5]
This is not to say that the coins used were uniform or constant. Though from thousands of miles away, the silver dirham shown here was first and foremost a coin made of precious metal. It did not matter that it was not technically minted by the governing nation; a variety of foreign coins were used in Norse territories, a remnant of the bullion economy. The silver dirham was the most likely foreign coin to show up on the British Isles because it was most widely used by people with modest amounts of wealth.[6] The gold coin was worth too much and copper coins were used mostly in local trade only. The fact that this coin was found on its own and not in a hoard means that it was likely in circulation and was one day dropped or lost somehow. Either way, it is evidence of a changing Norse economy as the result of influence from a foreign land. It is another example of the syncretism of Norse and English society in England.
