Norway's coin output in the late twelfth century was among the thinnest and most irregular in northern Europe — these bracteate-influenced fractions were struck at a handful of episcopal and royal mints whose output varied wildly in weight and fabric. At 0.03 g, this piece sits at the absolute lower boundary of what hand-hammering could consistently produce in silver, and many examples from this series show off-center or incomplete strikes as a direct consequence.
The Skaare 143 attribution places this within the reign of Sverre Sigurdsson or his immediate predecessors, a period of near-continuous civil war between the Birkebeiner and Bagler factions that severely disrupted mint operations across the kingdom.
Norway's coin output in the late twelfth century was among the thinnest and most irregular in northern Europe — these bracteate-influenced fractions were struck at a handful of episcopal and royal mints whose output varied wildly in weight and fabric. At 0.03 g, this piece sits at the absolute lower boundary of what hand-hammering could consistently produce in silver, and many examples from this series show off-center or incomplete strikes as a direct consequence.
The Skaare 143 attribution places this within the reign of Sverre Sigurdsson or his immediate predecessors, a period of near-continuous civil war between the Birkebeiner and Bagler factions that severely disrupted mint operations across the kingdom.