ABSTRACT
This chapter offers some thoughts on the Viking-Age silver hoards which contain non-numismatic material, whether accompanied by coins or not, and on the potential for using the form, composition and structure of such hoards as classificatory criteria. It provides a brief consideration of the phenomenon of hack-silver in Ireland. As the Viking Age in Ireland progressed, the composition and structure of its silver hoards changed. The Hiberno-Scandinavian silver-working tradition was centered on Dublin and, to a significantly lesser extent, the Munster towns. This general system of classification focuses on the compositional structure of those hoards, which contain non-numismatic material. Thus the proposed system facilitates the examination of the various roles that silver hoards and their components played in both Hiberno-Scandinavian and Irish society. Hack-silver may be interpreted in terms of ornaments and ingots being absorbed into commercial circulation because the available quantity of coined silver was insufficient to meet the needs of a metal-weight economy.
