Norwegian Collections

This volume (the first of two) publishes all Anglo-Saxon and British coins in Norwegian museum collections from the Iron Age up to 1016 (the death of AEthelred II 'the Unready'). Together, the two volumes contain images and descriptions of over 4,000 coins, making this important material available for analysis by archaeologists, historians and numismatists of the Viking Age and Anglo-Saxon England for the first time.

Finds of English coins constitute some of the most important Norwegian evidence for Viking activity, and for economic life in Norway before the first royal coinage was issued by King Harald Hardrada in the mid-eleventh century. Anglo-Saxon coins made their way to Norway in such numbers through Viking raiding activity, trade and payments of tribute; consequently these collections provide a broad perspective of late Anglo-Saxon coinage as well as an outstanding series of rarities. These include historically significant early Viking-Age finds, the B. F. Brekke collection of Anglo-Scandinavian coins, an Agnus Dei penny of AEthelred II and the unique 'Pointed Helmet' penny of AEthelred II. The volume also includes a comprehensive and up-to-date list of hoards and coin finds, and the first detailed English-language account of the history of the Norwegian numismatic collections. It follows the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles series format in illustrating all the coins, allowing detailed study of eight museum collections.