1 Penning - Olav Kyrre

Olav Kyrre — "the Peaceful" — ruled Norway for 26 years without fighting a single foreign war, an almost unimaginable record for an 11th-century Norse king. His reign saw the founding of Bergen and the establishment of permanent cathedral chapters in Norwegian towns, funded in part by a monetized economy his coinage helped sustain. Skaare 17 belongs to a series heavily influenced by contemporary Anglo-Saxon penny types, a direct consequence of Norwegian exposure to English minting practices during and after the Viking age.

The silver content varies noticeably across surviving examples — Norwegian assay records from this period are nonexistent, and metallurgical analysis suggests Kyrre's moneyers worked with inconsistent bullion sources.