Coins made to stop Viking raids ended up as Viking jewellery

“What fascinates me above all is how a little coin is able to unfold the history of English kings and of Christianity in England in a way that links up with Danish Viking-Age kings, Danish coinage and even the establishment of the Danish state. Because this affects all of Viking-Age society. Just imagine that one little coin contains so much history!” Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson, curator at the National Museum of Denmark, commented on the discovery of the two rare “Lamb of God” coins by detectorists in northern and southern Jutland of Denmark.

After repeated and lengthy invasions by Viking armies, the English King Æthelred the Unready attempted in 1009 to mobilise both nation and Church in the defence against these attacks. Apart from initiating extensive fasting and penance, the king also had an unusual coin minted depicting Christian motifs in the hope of obtaining divine intervention against the Vikings.

However, the coins did not have the desired effect. On the contrary, it seems the Vikings found them especially attractive and wore them as jewellery.

Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson said: “It gave me goose bumps, because these coins are extremely rare, and they convey a special and also paradoxical part of history. They were made to obtain protection against the Vikings, but ended up instead as jewellery or amulets worn by Vikings. That is almost tragicomical.”

This type of coins from England, the so-called “Lamb of God” coins, are very rare. In total, only 30 specimens have been found across the world; only 4 or 5 in England, and the rest in the Scandinavian and Baltic countries. Here, most of the coins have been equipped with loops, which suggests that the Vikings wore them as jewellery or perhaps as amulets around their necks.

The minting of these coins was probably limited and short lived. Perhaps it was given up because the desired effect failed to appear. At any rate, the Viking attacks continued.

The coins differ significantly from contemporary English coins, which depict the king on the obverse side and a cross on the reverse. The “Lamb of God” coins depict a lamb pierced by a cross on the obverse side – a Christian symbol of Christ’s sacrifice. The lamb steps on a plaque featuring the two Greek letters alpha and omega, symbolising that God is the beginning and the end of everything. The reverse depicts an ascending dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit.

The many English coins that the Vikings looted during their raids decisively affected the ways in which Danish Viking-Age kings organised the coinage in Denmark. “Danish coinage is inspired by and based on the well-organised English coinage. The Vikings soon realised that it was far more practical to use coins than to hack the silver into pieces for trading purposes,” says Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson.

Even the “Lamb of God” coins were imitated. Viking-Age kings such as Canute the Great and his son Harthacnut minted coins with the same two motifs, as did Sweyn Estridsson, who later played a significant part in establishing how the Danish Church was organised.

These many threads make the coin special, says Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson.