ABSTRACT
The theme developed in Aarhus was the changing power of silver as it moved from the display economy into the bullion economy. Gamesters' approach to the classification of the Viking-Age hoards from two different parts of Scandinavia differs somewhat from Sheehan's in being based on a division of the silver in four categories: coins, bars and ingots, hack-silver, personal ornaments. Indeed, Gaimster makes the point that the Icelandic law on blood-money, Baugatal, translates literally as the counting of rings. The overall concept of a display economy accords well with what Birgitta Hrdh, writing of Western Norway, has described elsewhere as: a system where silver had a social function. In particular, Peter Sawyer suggested that the rarity of English and Frankish coins in ninth-century Scandinavia was because the raiders did not take their winnings home, but rather used them as a sort of capital with which to settle.
