Viking Silver Hoards

If someone is accused of hoarding something--be it food or something else, they are thought of as being selfish. But sometimes people had good reason for hoarding.

All over the territory that used to belong to the Vikings or to people whose villages they once plundered, people have found what is called a Viking silver hoard. These silver hoards are stashes of broken or damaged silver, silver coins, silver ornaments and other silver fragments. These stashes of silver bounty are thought to have been buried between the years 800 and 1150. People are still unearthing Viking silver hoards even now in the 21 century. Someone found a long-ago buried stash of silver as recently as last year.

These stashes are sometimes called Viking hoards, but they are primarily known as Viking silver hoards. They got this name for a reason: these stashes contain a good amount of silver. Finding a Viking silver hoard gives historians and archaeologists an opportunity to look into the treasures of an ancient culture. They have found that these silver treasure troves contain silver that was gained through honest means like trades and dowries, but also from theft. Viking silver hoards also give evidence of the ways that people in that time crafted silver objects, including the way they produced silver coins.

Are you also hoarding silver? Why? Do you want to leave your silver treasure for someone else to find thousands of years later? Why do that when you can sell silver and get instant cash for silver that you can use now? No need to let silver objects sit around the house collecting dust when you can use the money you get from selling silver to do or buy something you really want? Future generations will have plenty of evidence about the way we live. No need to leave them your silver.

Future generations will have plenty of evidence about the way we live. No need to leave them your silver. What would they do with it anyway?  The archeologists who dig up these ancient Viking silver hoards do not reap the same kinds of benefits that the Vikings themselves could have reaped if they had decided to use their silver coins or wear the silver jewelry that the instead chose to hide. But it is likely that those who buried their treasures in these Viking silver hoards actually intended to return for their silver. They had no idea that for some reason they wouldn’t get back to their stash of silver and that this silver would remain hidden in the earth for someone else to find. Don’t bury your silver, in the house, in the garage or in a drawer, sell your silver and get as much as you can from it now.