Why Did the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons Use Coins Differently?

The Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings both used and minted coins - but not in quite the same way. By the 8th Century, Anglo-Saxon kings took an increasing interest in the economy and the minting of coins; initially golden ones like tremisses, solidi or mancuses, but later the silver peningas or sceattas. For the Vikings however, weight was everything, their economy being one of bullion in which silver of any form could be used to purchase goods.
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[@historywithhilbert146]

Thanks for watching everyone, hope yous enjoyed the video! Be sure to check out my other videos on the Anglo-Saxon and Vikings if you found it interesting and give me a thumbs up or considering subscribbling if you're new! Why were the Romans Allied to the Vikings' Ancestors: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nX_Oaqdpm9mafbc Why did the Viking Age Begin: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaDXXnuQoLKMatE Is Sweden Banning Runes: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHndi3aEpbupo8U Old English Sound Change in Strong Verbs: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lau1iGZ-qraJZrM Were the Anglo-Saxons Worse Than the Vikings: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4DIgoSNlJ2nmtU

[@_robustus_]

Equating cattle with wealth is ancient...like upper neolithic kind of ancient. The archeology shows early Yamnaya people (thought to be the proto-indo-european speakers) hoarding cattle for sacrificing on special occasions like funerals.

[@regular-joe]

Love your work, sir, but you might want to check this one out as a viewer - the audio is much too quiet on this one.

[@newideas5572]

Did you end up making that video about the Mercian coin with Arabic writing? Great quality content. Thanks!

[@kevwhufc8640]

@@newideas5572 I'm pretty sure those coins weren't minted in Britain ( mercia) at all , , they came by way of trade . I've looked through my Merican coins, apparently OFFA REX was stamped on reverse , later, They are Gold dinar of Caliph Al Mansur ( 774 ad )

[@kevwhufc8640]

@@newideas5572 £650 grand if you find one , just checked out prices in another coin book I have ,, I want one !!! Or a hoard would be even better :)

[@Shaden0040]

This episode is quieter than usual.

[@historywithhilbert146]

Apologies about that!

[@aphexon.]

Pup314 so turn up the volume

[@hvyLiam]

@@aphexon. the music is too loud compared to the voice.

[@CollinBuckman]

@@aphexon. My volume is at 100% and he still sounds very quiet.

[@Ch-xc4fo]

Ye, that's what happens when the Dutch aren't mentioned.

[@ThatIcelandicDude]

It's easy to think of the Bullian economy as being less developed but when it comes to international trade where different currencies have different values in different places, valuing things simply based on the veight of silver does make a whole lot more sense and seeing how much the vikings traded abroad it seems like a very natural development.

[@tiberiusmagnificuscaeser4929]

The music is a little loud towards the end, it makes it difficult to hear you talk. Other than that, very good video

[@KilledbyRapid]

Yeah I had to stop watching and give a dislike really ruined it for me.

[@ylcard]

It was way too loud for me right from the get go.. a shame

[@daddyleon]

Sorry, but the music is a bit too loud, especially around 18:00

[@peterkroger7112]

In German the word for cattle is also related: "Vieh"

[@historywithhilbert146]

Are there any words similar to it that relate to wealth by any chance?

[@OnlyMyPOV]

History With Hilbert Oy vey...oh cattle...lol. Or a pound of flesh in Anglish.

[@peterkroger7112]

@@historywithhilbert146 I'd have to think a bit. Modern German is quite simply an assortment of compound words. Wealth for example Is calles "Wohlstand" or "Reichtum" for exaple. But maybe if I dig a bit....

[@divingdave2945]

​@@historywithhilbert146 You pronounce feoh "feoch" as I would write it in German. Replace the o with an i and the f with a r, as vowels and consonants tend to shift over the centuries, and you get reich wich means rich. Also the Danish word for rich is rige wich is pronounced like vieh, just with a r instead of the v. Ok, rich would mean wealthY but... i tried.

[@johnd2058]

'Veal', on the "mooey" side of this. -_^

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

I like collecting coins, my favorite is the square coin from Aruba

[@historywithhilbert146]

Oh nice one! Which others do you have?

[@gimlinator4494]

I really like the Chinese knife coins

[@JohnSmith-rk6jy]

“Aruba, Jamaica, ooooo I wanna take ya. Bermuda, Bahama. Come on pretty mama.” 🎶

[@ThatIcelandicDude]

Fé in modern day Icelandic can refer to both Sheeps and Money. Fun fact.

[@poples5799]

Would love a video on the copying of the dinar xD This was a very interesting epidode. It would be cool to see a video on the routes arabian coins took to get to scandinavia. If I remember correctly there's some nice maps on that in the book about Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness. Arab Travellers in the Far North. It's otherwise also a very interesting book including translations of arab views of the vikings/rus/norsemen of the time, that is highly recommended if you haven't read it already.

[@jackielou68]

I AGREE! :)

[@normannormiemates4844]

The nice thing about metal coins is they aren't fiat currency

[@Seagull780]

@BLUE DOG Except they can and do

[@Seagull780]

@BLUE DOG I'm not defeated, I'm just not kidding myself. If you invent your own currency or just trade goods without money the IRS will be on your ass

[@Nortrix87]

In Norwegian the word for cattle is Fe. You have storfe= big cattle, småfe=small cattle. Not used today, but around 70 years back and you could say "liggende fe" for coins. "Liggende" as in lying cattle oposed to "gang fe" walking cattle. Today you use krone/mynt for coin and Verdi for value.

[@Nabium]

I was gonna leave a polite comment here about how the volume balance between your voice and the music was a bit off, but, seeing how everyone else has already complained about it, I'm instead going to leave you a message about how I was gonna leave you a message. Which I have just done. Thanks for your time! Cheers bro!

[@peterknutsen3070]

The music is too loud towards the end, relative to your voice. As for the value of a penny coin in the Viking Age, I did some work on that some years ago, be because I needed a rough sense of it for a tabletop RPG project, so I combined data from various sources, and arrived at 1 silver penny being the (very rough) equivalent of 100 Danish kroner. That’s fairly close to your “ten pounds” in the video.

[@ashleybugg4061]

From one re-enactor to another thank you for covering this topic as you said it’s not often covered and nice to see talked about

[@LKeyYT]

Man I love this content, thanks for the great vids Hilbert!

[@jh5401]

your volume is a little quiet, but nice video!

[@jubisvaldo5450]

Vinland Saga vibe

[@historywithhilbert146]

Hype hype

[@MaxArturo]

Love the anime, some kind soul uploads the episodes every Sunday

[@esbendit]

Later in mideival denmark, one of the kings: Erik Klipping, got that name for devalueing the currrency, by litterally cutting bits of the coins, to make new coins.

[@kayharker712]

If there are any Old Fashioned Undertakers still out there. Mince pies on the eyes of the deceased instead of coins make a nice festive touch at Christmas.

[@tezer2d]

The music is loud and your voice is quiet. At some parts like 18:40 it's hard to understand you

[@alexdunphy3716]

History time and history with hilbert along with survive the jive are some of the best history channels on here

[@igneous061]

...about cattle...in serbian and many similar slavic languages..lots of older people call cattle, chickens and other domestic animals "blago", in literal translation to english would be tresure...or smth that is worth quite a lot...explanation and understanding goes quite long way if you think aboutit

[@igneous061]

...what?

[@michaelwalton1450]

Americans have the “bit” in common colloquial usage meaning 1/8 of a $. Two bits is $.25. As I understand it, the Spanish dollar was very common in the colonies and it was a common practice to divide them into 8 pieces to make them into a more usable coinage.

[@jacquelinevanderkooij4301]

The name dollar comes from the dutch word daalder.

[@MrTohawk]

Making coins is not that difficult from a crafting perspective. They are mostly stamped. So you need to get a stamp once and then anyone can just wack a round metal bit with a hammer.

[@kevwhufc8640]

Many Viking coins found in Britain were copies of Saxon coins Including the Alfred London monogram pennies - on reverse) minted after he took London back . But the Viking ones are regarded as "very barbarous work" and are lighter than the Saxon versions

[@jbussa]

Awesome job Hilbert. Is it possible there was deflation and that led to the cutting up of coins more and more?

[@apassionforlace]

Maybe next time the music a bit lower in volume. Very interesting. Have you been to the We Vikingen exhibit in Ljouwert? Not something to come for all the way from the UK, but when you're around, visiting, perhaps you can pop in. It on till May.

[@lewsoowiej5963]

Thank you Hilbert! :)

[@ppaaccoojrf]

Seems like I got here quite early and only realized after finishing the video. Thanks for the upload.

[@MistressQueenBee]

How-Do from Voices of the Past and History Time. The Kelly Brothers have kindly sent me over for Viking Month♥

[@ike9854]

There was no Sweden at this time, there were a lot of small kingdoms, and no minters. At the end of the 11th century, when a unified, christian Swedish nation was formed, and the king was going to mint his own coins, it was made by Englishmen, because we did not know how to do it!!

[@adamroodog1718]

Offa of mercia had a wild haircut

[@matthewread7220]

Interesting video, never thought about the money. Decent music at the beginning but whole vid rather quiet.

[@HikmaHistory]

Looking forward to being a part of this collab!

[@russelljt3525]

Yes please make the video about the mercian coin

[@Hirosjimma]

yes please do a video on them copying the foreign coin!

[@thomasthetank9976]

There should be another sabaton story: Gott mit uns or The 1631 battle of breitenfeld

[@alexdunphy3716]

GOTT MITT UNS, AS WE ALL STAND UNITED!

[@user-ct9tc4lw9h]

ALL TOGETHER

[@cormacfromtahiti9706]

The Irish eventually followed a similar cattle-centric economic approach; primary sources like the Táin Bó Cuailnge base conflicts around cattle disputes between petty kingdoms. Probably related to the decline in Irish piracy as the medieval era set in.

[@Eza_yuta]

Can you make video about Ban Liang coins?

[@micahistory]

Interesting. I didn't even know about this

[@IwanTimmermans]

Love your video’s. Are you Dutch? Friesland?

[@jessebosch6732]

Hij is Engels alleen hij kan Nederlands en Fries omdat zijn familie in Nederland woont geloof ik

[@IwanTimmermans]

Jesse Bosch ah ok

[@1Ring42]

Definitely want to see that coin copying video.

[@peterkroger7112]

Funny. That Arabic word Mithqal reminds me of Mithril. Did Mr. Tolkien want to suggest something about the value of this fantastic metal? He was a linguistic genius after all.

[@BradleyGearhart]

Great video! (And happy Thanksgiving to the Americans out there!)

[@TheDevilock666]

Double plus good. Bit quite at times. And yes I would like to watch that video.

[@shanebattles6132]

Pretty cool video great fan

[@floridaman3823]

Money is the means for a state to demand taxation. Kings had to spend first, i.e. Give money/ spend money into existence. The difference between what was given and taken for taxation created a means of transaction between individuals within that society.

[@GenghisVern]

Christine Desan out of Yale has produced quite a bit on this subject. Check out one of her lectures maybe?

[@AlexLaw_Qld]

You just said there was no silver in the British Isles. One of the motivations for the Roman occupation was the rich Silver mines in various parts of the British Isles. Sure a lot of coins were reminted from foreign coinage, but that just reflects the huge export economy of the British Isles even in the depths of the "dark ages". Mmmm Kentish wines...

[@elenerayto]

Dude this was good but the music was way too loud to be able to hear your voice, but overall really good

[@Outlaw1499]

Ok I can't find an answer. What do you do if someone puts a penny in your dessert?

[@Tulsyildirim]

Did you ever find out?!

[@vze4p6c2]

Love it

[@LuvBorderCollies]

Music is very distracting. Not sure why so many KZbinrs like to smother their work in annoying noise.

[@blugaledoh2669]

Because some people like some smooth music.

[@blugaledoh2669]

You don't like music?

[@tateisgod]

is it just me or is the music always louder than hilbert talking?

[@matchedimpedance]

What tool was used to cut coins?

[@MrKongatthegates]

Hacksaw

[@nathanaelsallhageriksson1719]

But how did the vikings trade more valueble things that weighed less for less valueble things that weighed more? Like, surely quality played a roll in their trade.

[@Opochtli]

Neat!

[@nicholaspozzi2862]

Please download video about coin duplication!

[@niboooo]

Tunes are too bangin

[@AlucardNoir]

So you started Viking month at the end of the month?

[@MrTohawk]

So Viking month starts and ends when?

[@tarasdubenskyy508]

Great video but the voice of the speaker is hardly heard because of too loud Medieval music

[@Ebbagull]

Really interesting, well done! 👍🏻 Feedback: the music, particularly at the end (see 18:00) is *way* too loud. It's difficult to even hear you. Something to think about in the future. Otherwise great! Keep up the good work!

[@jpdj2715]

Today's economists in the Global Village calculate in BMU as a way to abstract away from currency exchange towards main street purchasing power or value. (BMU: big mac unit. Main street: as opposed to Wall Street.)

[@landkonnudur]

Why only change to weighing a century after contact, instead of much sooner? Because the change wasn't because the Anglo-Saxons saw the system and thought that it was great - it was simply because at that point, after such extensive contact, literal generations have passed, and people care the most about simplifying the process to make trade easier. Including other social reasons of course, because there is never just one, simple answer.

[@edgy6562]

Yes.

[@leomes]

Very interesting video, but it's a little hard to hear you. Nevertheless, can't wait for the other videos.

[@WarDogMadness]

Hilbert you watched vinland saga yet ?

[@Arkanthrall]

Nice video as usual. However the sound of your voice is too low while the volume of the music is too high. I don't even think you need music actually.

[@Historian212]

Interesting, but the narration volume is too low to begin with, and later the music gets turned up way too loud.

[@MrChazSexington]

"Fe" still means cattle in Norwegian :)

[@jessemiller9116]

Loved the video but next time please turn down the music, I can barely hear you!

[@000Dragon50000]

To go back a bit further, kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYuseoGOnax3mdU is a very interesting look at how money and barter came to be in the first place

[@micoberss5579]

Music is too loud

[@j3tztbassman123]

But is a British pound sterling still worth a pound of silver?

[@themoreyouknow7418]

Googled the dessert thing, found nothing. :/

[@Tulsyildirim]

Same!

[@micahistory]

Basically the Scandinavians based its off the Arab system and the English off the Roman system

[@wholefoodplantbasedmama5398]

The sound is too low. I cannot hear you.

[@Sk0lzky]

This video was recommended under unrelated Skallagrim's one, probably because of music xD

[@PitboyHarmony1]

damn ... the key info, unhearable due to the audio mix.

[@IpernickTheGreat]

Hell yeah coins....

[@dogvetusa]

Towards the end the background music overwhelms the narrator

[@metania63]

Danmed archade music makes me FLIP!!!

[@jacquelinevanderkooij4301]

Too loud music Hilbert.

[@julians7268]

Umm... yes please on that imitation coin video! Thats weird and awesome.

[@The_Daily_Tomato]

You calling us liars? I challenge thee to a duel!!

[@SweetMattieG]

3:00 TL;DR at bottom. Barter only arises when there is a lack of physical coins in a coinage/physical money economy. Before coinage systems people exchanged with credit and labor. No one ever exchanged a bunch of farm goods for a helmet. That idea is a theoretical cancer from Adam Smith trying to imagine what the past was like without having any actual knowledge of old economic systems. If not Adam Smith then definitely one of the early European economists. The Irish system where slave women were a unit of value derives from their notoriously litigious law code, which includes recompense for things as trivial as some man's bee stinging another man, the legal remedy being impossible to issue since it involves calculating the value of a bee. Irish lawyers did shit like this for fun. The slave women unit in particular was only for the extremely wealthy landowners. In fact most units were, if you weren't a noble you weren't allowed to take the spoils of war and gain wealth that way. I'm fairly certain that the Irish also used cows as a unit of account (not money), but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't since Irish cattle were half feral and were hunted by the nobles. Money requires four things to be money: it needs to be used as a unit of account, a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a standard of deferred payment. Things used historically that laymen and economists (singling out economists because they don't talk to historians or anthropologists about how people actually used to do things) can look at and say "hey, that's money" take any combination of those four and almost never all four at once, which is how we think of currency in the modern day. TL;DR Just because something is a store of value and is used to pay legal settlements, doesn't mean it's money.

[@psammiad]

Music too loud!

[@rhoddryice5412]

Music way to loud. Almost impossible to hear you Hilbert.

[@JoshuaCairns]

I don't think you need the music in the background... Great Presentation!

[@JaykPuten]

Im interested in a video as to why the dinar was copied by mercia Like some engrish copy from china...except a... Arablish? Engrabian? from england

[@marshallkearney7401]

Yo he’s a metal head!

[@Henrikko123]

Yes, tell us about arabic coins in regards to scandinavia!

[@LeGingeMusik]

Send me your audio tracks before you upload I will mix them and make them sound better for free I just sometimes can't hear it very well.

[@isaiahkerstetter3142]

The only thing that I can find for putting a penny in dessert is that you have to eat if without utensils, and that some morons tried that on Stephen Hawking.

[@arcanics1971]

One is money one is moo-lah. Ftpfy (fixed that pun for you.)

[@williamlinley1402]

The Saxons seemed to be a lot more civilized to me

[@PerfectlyImperfect804]

Money = Life and/or Death

[@eddys.3524]

Nice video... but the background music is too much in the foreground...

[@npc4322]

Music wayyyy too loud