As I was searching through one of my favorite seller's inventories of hammered coins of early England, I noticed that a good deal of early (Viking era) coins had what are referred to as "peck marks".  I am wondering what the cause and purpose of this was?   For those who haven't seen this before, they look like small digs in the surface of a silver penny (here's an example from York Coins-http://www.yorkcoins.com/images/h970x2.jpg) almost looks like a small knife had been poked into the surface several times.

I was just curious if anyone had info on how these were made, and why?


Thanks in advance.

As I was searching through one of my favorite seller's inventories of hammered coins of early England, I noticed that a good deal of early (Viking era) coins had what are referred to as "peck marks".  I am wondering what the cause and purpose of this was?   For those who haven't seen this before, they look like small digs in the surface of a silver penny (here's an example from York Coins-http://www.yorkcoins.com/images/h970x2.jpg) almost looks like a small knife had been poked into the surface several times.

I was just curious if anyone had info on how these were made, and why?


Thanks in advance.

I'm just taking a stab at this, but I'm wondering if these might be test marks made by merchants. Maybe the merchant used a knife or some other sharp instrument to either check authenticity, or purity of the silver (or other ores used). A merchant had to be careful that they weren't getting ripped off when a transaction was made so they had to check to see what's was being passed off to them. Again this is just a guess. Anyone else is free to correct me if I'm wrong.

~Daniel.

I'm just taking a stab at this, but I'm wondering if these might be test marks made by merchants. Maybe the merchant used a knife or some other sharp instrument to either check authenticity, or purity of the silver (or other ores used). A merchant had to be careful that they weren't getting ripped off when a transaction was made so they had to check to see what's was being passed off to them. Again this is just a guess. Anyone else is free to correct me if I'm wrong.

~Daniel.

That's one possibility, and certainly within reason.  I think they did the same thing with some ancients, to test for authenticity or purity.  Besides a few Greek coins (Athens), I have only seen it like this on coins of this era, and coming from this general region.  I wonder if there are other types of coins out there that have similar markings, or could it have been a localized practice?

That's one possibility, and certainly within reason.  I think they did the same thing with some ancients, to test for authenticity or purity.  Besides a few Greek coins (Athens), I have only seen it like this on coins of this era, and coming from this general region.  I wonder if there are other types of coins out there that have similar markings, or could it have been a localized practice?
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I would imagine gold as a possibility. Since it's one of the highest value coins, a merchant wouldn't want to take a blind risk at being conned. Well, at least, that's what I would have done. You could be right in that it was just a local practice. Too bad we can't ask anyone from that time, huh?

Zantetsuken is correct, a number of references refer to ancient coins having bankers peck marks. As for the later Viking coins:
The small gouges on the reverse of the coin are known as "peck" marks and were made with a knife to test the purity of the silver. The Anglo-Saxons would have had no need to do this, as the bust of Æthelred on the coin was a royal guarantee of its value: this coin could be exchanged for a penny worth of goods. The Vikings, however, only saw the coin for its silver content and *pecked* or *bent* it to find out how soft, and therefore how pure it was.

The Vikings, however, only saw the coin for its silver content and *pecked* or *bent* it to find out how soft, and therefore how pure it was.

That is very interesting!  I also wondered why these coins so often also have wavy flans, this could explain it.  My Cnut penny has a wave in it, should it therefore be considered normal for the period? Quite possibly....

Good info, Walmann. 


<<Too bad we can't ask anyone from that time, huh?>>

It's amazing to me how much info is still in existence ...documents, artwork, etc.  I enjoy reading on topics from medieval Europe and the Dark Ages, and there seems to be a lot of it out there.  That's part of the fun in collecting from the era.

Zantetsuken is correct, a number of references refer to ancient coins having bankers peck marks. As for the later Viking coins:
The small gouges on the reverse of the coin are known as "peck" marks and were made with a knife to test the purity of the silver. The Anglo-Saxons would have had no need to do this, as the bust of Æthelred on the coin was a royal guarantee of its value: this coin could be exchanged for a penny worth of goods. The Vikings, however, only saw the coin for its silver content and *pecked* or *bent* it to find out how soft, and therefore how pure it was.

Very interesting 'Walmann'. Thanks for the info. I found it especially interesting about Aethelred's coins. I guess in any age, you have to cover your tail when it comes to making a cash transaction.

~Daniel

I guess I should give the link to the page my quote came from:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/26/messages/257.html

I guess I should give the link to the page my quote came from:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/26/messages/257.html

Thanks once again 'Walmann'. I read the article, and found it very interesting about the coin test and the references to bad pennies. It's funny how some quotes get started ('A bad penny always turns up' etc.). In any case this article explaned alot for me. Best regards.

~Daniel.

Fun reading back through these old threads.

New question - So where are all of these "fake" or off-metal Anglo-Saxon pennies that they were testing for?  I personally don't recall seeing any...