Anglo-Viking Weight

CNG 106, Lot: 1088. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANGLO-SAXON, Anglo-Viking (Danish East Anglia)(?). Late 9th century. PB 2 Ertugar or 2/3 Eyrir Weight (18mm, 17.69 g). Circular lead weight, inset with two stycas of Æthelred II of Northumbria, from his 2nd reign (843/4-849/50), with the obverses facing outward; one side is motif type 1a, the same obverse die as SCBI 68 (Lyon), 398, while the other is motif type 1b, the same obverse die as SCBI 68 (Lyon), 401–2. Cf. G. Williams, “Anglo-Saxon and Viking Coin Weights,” in BNJ 69 (1999), nos. 9–10 for similar weights with coins of Æthelred II inset. VF. Very rare and interesting.

Williams' analysis of the known weights of this type clearly places them in the Danelaw during the later ninth century, when the Viking economy was still bullion-based, and weights were used for weighing both coinage and bullion.

The purpose of the coins set into these weights remains uncertain, but Williams suggests that they served both a decorative and a practical function as a symbol of authority. Although the Viking economy was still pre-monetary, Williams notes that the Vikings were familiar with coinage and likely recognized that coin designs represented state authority. He also suggests that the Vikings were probably familiar with Anglo-Saxon coin weights, which were validated by the virtue of being stamped with official dies, and argues that the lack of coin dies for use on their own weights was remedied by applying a coin within each. Williams points out that the fact that some of the coins used were issued by Anglo-Saxon kings would have been irrelevant, as the vast majority of the Vikings were illiterate.