Dirham flows into northern and eastern Europe and the rhythms of the slave trade with the Islamic world

Silver recycling in the Viking Age: Theoretical and analytical approaches

“…The control of Ag alloys for the production of fine silver jewellery necessitated silver refining, even from ‘pure’ to ‘hyper‐pure’ levels. Such refining is likely to have been particularly necessary during temporary periods of debasement in the source coinage, such as that which occurred in the mid‐ninth century in coinage from Anglo‐Saxon England and the Carolingian Continent (Metcalf & Northover, 1985; Sarah, 2008) or towards the end of the stream of dirham import into Scandinavia in the 950s and 960s, when the Ag content of dirhams dropped to the region of 70–80% (Ilisch et al, 2003; Jankowiak, 2020).…”

“…In particular, Islamic dirhams typically constituted over 95% silver, with very low levels of trace elements (Ilisch et al, 2003). The decline in their Ag content towards the mid‐10th century resulted almost immediately in their increased hoarding within Scandinavia and their ultimate rejection by the local population in favour of new, higher quality silver coins from Germany (Jankowiak, 2020).…”

“…3.7). Substantial numbers of Samanid dirhams continue to arrive in Scandinavia until their debasement from the 930s, which led, ultimately, to their abandonment c .950 (Jankowiak, 2020). Fortunately, Samanid dirhams are well‐characterized isotopically and elementally and, owing to their distinct ore sources, they are geochemically unrelated to earlier Abbasid dirhams (Merkel, 2016, 100, figs 7.10–7.11).…”

“…In particular, Islamic dirhams typically constituted over 95% silver, with very low levels of trace elements (Ilisch et al, 2003). The decline in their Ag content towards the mid-10th century resulted almost immediately in their increased hoarding within Scandinavia and their ultimate rejection by the local population in favour of new, higher quality silver coins from Germany (Jankowiak, 2020). Second, the very fact that Scandinavians developed methods for assessing the quality of silver ('nicking'/'pecking') suggests that they were aware of the possibility of debased silver, which in turn implies that silver was not routinely cupelled.…”