A silver ingot found near Binbrook, Lincolnshire. (c) Portable Antiquities Scheme, CC BY-SA 2.0
Description
Silver Ingot (NLM-ABB952)
A silver ingot found near Binbrook, Lincolnshire
This silver ingot was made by melting down worked silver and casting it in a mould. The Vikings arriving in England had a bullion economy in which they paid for goods with silver that was weighed to an amount agreed between the buyer and the seller. Hacksilver and silver ingots are the most common evidence for their bullion economy. It took some time for the Scandinavian settlers to adopt a monetary economy like that of the Anglo-Saxons, and both systems were used simultaneously for a while before they fully adopted the new system. The Vikings were familiar with monetary economies but they treated coins as just another form of silver before adoption of a monetary economy.
