Norway’s largest coin hoard gets even larger

The largest Viking-era coin hoard ever found in Norway is getting larger by the minute. When the discovery was announced less than two weeks ago, the number of silver coins had just passed 3,000. Today the number of coins in the 11th century Mørstad hoard has skyrocketed past 4,167 with more being found daily. The 4,167 milestone is the total of all four of the other major Viking hoards discovered in Norway combined. As of two days ago, the total was up to 4,344. It will soon make the top 10 in Scandinavia.

The metal detecting survey is complete, but the coins keep coming. Archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo have now taken over the excavation and are using heavy machinery to remove the topsoil. The topsoil is so thick at the site that metal detectors couldn’t penetrate it, but now that it’s been peeled back, the team is still pulling between 70 and 100 coins a day.

The 4,000 coin is a Danish penny minted by order of Harthacnut, future King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042, and King of England for the last two of those years. It was minted in Lund between 1030 and 1035, the last years of his father Knut’s government.

The number of early Harald Hardråde coins, the first coins to be minted in Norway, found in the hoard has gone up to four. They were all minted shortly after he became king around 1046–47. They have a higher silver content that the later issues. When he began, the only coins in the country were foreign and were used in pieces for the silver weight and tested for value when exchanged. Only about 15-20 of these early coins have been found before now, and none of them in Østerdalen in eastern Norway. By the time of Harald Hardråde’s death 20 years later, two thirds of the coins circulating in Norway had been minted there and were being used as actual coins for their nominal value, not for the assayed silver content.

The discovery of such an unprecedentedly huge coin hoard would be exciting in any context, but the location was far from the traditional centers of power of Viking Norway. Indeed, no evidence of any population at all has been found yet.

So far, archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History have not found any traces of settlements or graves or other structures.

“We hope to find traces of the treasure container,” says [excavation project manager Kjetil] Loftsgarden. “They were once in a container before they were pulled out by the plow.”

Meanwhile, apparently the sky’s the limit on the coins themselves.

“It is absolutely fantastic that we have passed 4,000,” says May-Tove Smiseth, archaeologist at Innlandet County Municipality. “The possibility exists that we will reach 5,000.”

Early Harald Hardråde coin, triskele on obverse, cross on reverse. Photo courtesy Innlandet County Council.

* This article was originally published here