1 Penning

Struck under Olaf Kyrre, whose reign brought an unusual period of domestic peace following the turbulent Norwegian kingships of the mid-eleventh century. Kyrre abandoned the Viking practice of raiding and instead oriented Norway toward continental European trade networks, which directly necessitated a more standardized coinage. These small silver pennies circulated alongside English and German imports, and the Norwegian issues of this period show clear stylistic borrowing from Anglo-Saxon penny types — unsurprising given the persistent English influence on Scandinavian minting practice since the time of Cnut.