“National treasure” coin identified in Mørstad Hoard

As the cataloguing of more than 5,000 coins in Norway’s largest Viking coin hoard proceeds apace, archaeologist Anne Skogsfjord has identified one of the rarest coins in the country: a silver penny issued by Olaf Haraldsson, aka Saint Olaf, patron saint of Norway. Fewer than 20 Olaf Haraldsson coins are known to survive today. There are only four of this type, three of them in Sweden. The only one discovered in Norway was found over a century ago in 1924.

The coin bears the king’s portrait facing left wearing a conical helmet. In front of the profile is a cross on three steps, known as a Golgotha cross, a symbol frequently found on Byzantine coins. The inscription reads ONLAF R+ NORMANORV (“Olaf, King of the Norwegians”). The reverse features a double cross. The inscription is worn in this example so the final letters are missing, but we know from other surviving coins struck from this die that the full inscription reads +CE DVX DOMINNVS MEI (“My leader, my lord”).

Three different issues of Olaf Haraldsson pennies are known, all of them modelled after Anglo-Saxon pennies struck under Cnut the Great around 1024–1030. This issue dates to 1024-1028, the waning years of the Viking Age. Olaf Haraldsson is credited with spreading Christianity in Norway, and as he was likely directly responsible for deciding how the coins would look, the iconographic themes and inscriptions confirm his emphasis on Christianization.

The Museum of Cultural History calls the discovery a sensation.

“This is a coin commemorating Christianisation on a grand scale. We can see how King Olaf uses the coinage to legitimise the new faith, and to legitimise himself as a Christian king of European standing,” says Gullbekk. […]

It probably changed hands several times during the 20–25 years it was in circulation before being buried at what is now the Mørstad farm in Eastern Norway. Researchers can see several traces of small cuts made with a knife on both sides of the coin. This was a way of checking the silver content during payments.

The Olaf coin will be one of the coins from the Mørstad Hoard that will be going on display for the first time in a new exhibition at the Museum of Cultural History on November 20th.

* This article was originally published here