Vikings melted down Islamic coins to make their own pennies, new research has revealed.
Some of the earliest Viking cash on record was crafted using silver from Middle Eastern coins known as dirhams.
The findings, published in the journal Archaeometry, confirm a long-suspected connection between early Scandinavian coinage and Islamic silver.
Scientists examined coins from the Damhus hoard, a collection of 226 Viking Age pennies unearthed near the Danish town of Ribe on the Jutland Peninsula in 2018.
The study suggests this precious metal reached Viking mints through long-distance trading networks that connected medieval Scandinavia with the Islamic world.
The trove dates to between 830 and 850 AD, placing these silver pieces among the earliest Viking coins ever discovered.
Despite being over a millennium old, the pennies remain remarkably well-preserved.
One face depicts what is believed to be Odin, the king of the Norse gods, whilst the reverse shows a stag.
Though they’re called pennies, their silver content made them far more valuable than their modern equivalents.
The term derives from the Old English word “pening,” with a single coin sufficient to buy ale, bread or basic tools in the ninth century.
Researchers identified that at least 30 different dies were used to stamp the coins.
As the dies wore out, they were replaced with similar versions, creating tiny variations that modern scientists can detect.
This pattern allowed researchers to estimate that hundreds of thousands of this type of silver penny were produced at the single Ribe mint, which was a major settlement during that era.
Using X-ray fluorescence and other analytical techniques, the team examined 25 coins from the hoard.
They analysed different isotopes of trace elements mixed with the silver.
The results showed that in some cases, more than half of the precious metal originated from Islamic dirhams.
The coins were likely minted from silver ingots produced outside Scandinavia, created partly by melting down Islamic coins in bulk.
These ingots had likely been traded to the ancient mint at Ribe.
“This silver has already had a life cycle; it’s not coming straight from a mine,” said Dr Thomas Birch, an archaeometrist at the National Museum of Denmark and the study’s first author.
“[The silver] has been made into dirhams and then been melted in a pot somewhere.”
The Damhus hoard dates from precisely when Islamic silver was becoming widespread in the Viking world.
Islamic jewellery from the same period has also been found in Scandinavia.
“We’re right at the juncture of when we can see Islamic silver coming in,” Dr Birch said.
“If these coins are being minted in the hundreds of thousands, that’s a huge quantity of Islamic silver.”
