ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on coins struck in Scandinavia, which mainly relate to the late Viking Age. More than 250000 coins from the Viking Age have been found in Scandinavia, and most of them carry inscriptions which tell when, where, and for whom they were struck. Native Scandinavian coinage starts with imitations of Carolingian Dorestad pennies and of Frisian sceattas. This early Scandinavian coinage has no inscriptions to say when, where, and for whom it was struck. The earliest Scandinavian pennies weigh half as much as a contemporary Carolingian penny. However, taking the whole of Scandinavia into account, Blackburn's big chain and connected coinages seem most probably to belong to the southern part of Scandinavia - that is, Denmark. In endeavouring to find out what coinage tells about Scandinavian society in the late Viking Age, this brief survey can only touch on some of the main points.
