. Social Scandinavia in the Viking age. Fio;. .i-i. Bronze JJalances. (From Uustafsons Xorges Oldtid). Fig. .?^4. Weights for Halances, Silver Uars, and Pieces of Loin. i lromSteenstrups Danmarks Historie) TRADE AND COMMERCE 229 eight times the value of the same weight of silver. Thesilver in large amounts—and, to a lesser extent, the gold—was carried in the form of bars which had been castin molds; and for the purpose of making smaller change,it was drawn out in the shape of spirals, or long, thickwires, from which small parts could be cut or brokenand weighed (Fig. 34).^ Gold and silver in j
. Social Scandinavia in the Viking age. Fio;. .i-i. Bronze JJalances. (From Uustafsons Xorges Oldtid). Fig. .?^4. Weights for Halances, Silver Uars, and Pieces of Loin. i lromSteenstrups Danmarks Historie) TRADE AND COMMERCE 229 eight times the value of the same weight of silver. Thesilver in large amounts—and, to a lesser extent, the gold—was carried in the form of bars which had been castin molds; and for the purpose of making smaller change,it was drawn out in the shape of spirals, or long, thickwires, from which small parts could be cut or brokenand weighed (Fig. 34).^ Gold and silver in jewelry,like those metals in bullion, were weighed and passedout as money, careful note being made of the degree ofpurity of the metals used.^* Foreign coins of gold andsilver, which were used in the North centuries before anative coinage came into existence, were likewiseweighed. The original reason for this was that whenfirst introduced their use was not clearly understood;hence, they were looked upon merely as bullion, as ismade quite clear by the fact that in order to get exactweight the
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