This anthology is the third in a series aiming to integrate Viking-period numismatics and archaeology. It collects papers developed from presentations at a 2014 symposium in London. Ten out of the fourteen contributions deal mainly with silver. Of the remaining four, two deal with gold, one with cloth and one with the titular butter. Five papers caught my particular interest. Marek Jankowiak's paper about how Islamic dirham coins became fragmented around the Baltic is impressive thanks to its wide scope, solid data foundation and clear reasoning. It is a must-read for anyone who thinks about hack silver (fragments of silver collected together and used as bullion or currency). Jankowiak details how Scandinavians picked out and hoarded the heavier dirhams in the weight range, suggesting that such coins reached the Baltic intact and were weighed individually there. (This is Gresham's law in action, indicating that the coins were seen as potentially monetised, with a nominal value.) Old and new dirhams in one hoard are equally fragmented, suggesting that they circulated whole together and were fragmented late during a hoard's amassment period. Fragmentation does not follow the length of the circulation time. Instead it relates to the distance to the mint: “The fragmentation of dirhams in the Baltic area thus appears to be correlated with the degree to which their last owner's access to the market of Bulgar was mediated” (p. 23, emphasis added). People apparently did not fragment their dirhams for local transactions, but rather when they moved coins long distances, from one ‘hoarding zone’ to another. These results are relevant (if not directly applicable) to other fragmented silver items of the era as well.

Andrew R. Woods offers a similarly comprehensive view of Hiberno-Norse coins of c. 995–1100, offering a rehabilitation for a previously slandered coinage. The weight variation among die-linked coins (coins that were produced by the same die on one side but a different one on the other) here is quite constrained, pointing towards well-organised and controlled minting. The silver fineness is high and does not deteriorate over the decades. Instead, the weight of individual coins decreases though the lifetime of some types, then bounces back up when new ones replace them: “The precise production and apparent manipulation of weights speak of a coinage administered by those with a clear understanding of how it worked” (p. 86). The observed changes occur during quiet political periods, not at succession events or during unrest: the coinage is managed according to a coherent long-term plan.

Florent Audy contributes the first paper you should ever read about coin pendants. Here are solid data on how numerous pendants are in each geographic origin group (Byzantine and Bohemian examples stand out), how common they are in each terminus post quem decade of the Viking period (the 860s and 970s stand out), and more. When found in hoards, these modifications, argues Audy, show that silver coins moved seamlessly from the economic realm into that of symbolism and personal adornment, and back again.

Conversely, Jane Kershaw argues that not all Viking-period goldwork was symbolic or aesthetic in nature. Scandinavians were quite aware of the weight of a gold ring. In particular, finds from England indicate quite a voluminous gold-bullion economy there involving both hack gold and ingots, active not least at Viking camps such as Torksey and the evocatively named ‘A Riverine Site Near York’. There is weight-adjusted Viking gold jewellery and nick-tested gold in England as well. I would like to add that the archaeological visibility of this gold economy must be assumed to be only about one-twelfth that of the silver economy. Motivation was far greater to search carefully in the rushes on the floor for the piece of hack gold that had been dropped than for a silver quarter dirham.

As for the butter and cloth, sadly there is not much here for the student of the Viking period. Both papers are well argued and based on strong data. But Aaron J. Critch et al. cannot show whether butter production was important at Quoygrew in Orkney prior to AD 1100, and Michèle Hayeur Smith shows quite conclusively that Icelandic textiles were not yet a form of standardised commodity money prior to that date. Their perspectives and methodology are applicable as valuable lessons for future work on Viking-period material. To a reader who focuses on that era, however, this fine book belongs firmly on the precious metals shelf. A ten-page thematic index adds substantially to its value.