Norway's penning coinage of the 1260s falls within the reign of Håkon Håkonsson's son Magnus Lagabøte, whose monetary reforms were among the most deliberate of any medieval Scandinavian ruler. The penning and its fractions circulated in a northern economy where silver by weight still competed with struck coin as a medium of exchange. At 0.16g, this quarter denomination represents the practical lower limit of what a medieval die-cutter could produce with any consistency.
Norway's penning coinage of the 1260s falls within the reign of Håkon Håkonsson's son Magnus Lagabøte, whose monetary reforms were among the most deliberate of any medieval Scandinavian ruler. The penning and its fractions circulated in a northern economy where silver by weight still competed with struck coin as a medium of exchange. At 0.16g, this quarter denomination represents the practical lower limit of what a medieval die-cutter could produce with any consistency.