Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Denier - Olof Skötkonung / Imitating Æthelred II, 978-1016
| Issuer | Sweden |
|---|---|
| Year | 995-1022 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.47 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | EDELERD REX ANG (Translation: Æthelred king of England.) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Olof Skötkonung, the first Christian king of Sweden, began striking coins around 995 at Sigtuna — the earliest coins minted on Swedish soil. The immediate model was the English penny of Æthelred II, then flooding into Scandinavia by the shipload as Danegeld payments. Between 991 and 1014, England paid roughly 48,000 pounds of silver to Viking raiders, and Anglo-Saxon coin types consequently saturated northern European trade to the point that local mints simply copied them rather than developing independent designs.
The imitation was deliberate political currency, not technical limitation. Sigtuna die-cutters working under Olof produced their own variants with increasing divergence from the English prototype over the course of the series.