Noter og English Summary til

Axel Ernst: Bidrag til Ribe Mønts historie, NNÅ 1948

 

SUMMARY

Axel Ernst: Contribution to the History of the Ribe Mint.

Ribe is one of Denmark's oldest towns and in the Middle ages it was one of the most important commercial ports. Accordingly a far more comprehensive series of coins might have been expected than the one which we know thanks to P. Hauberg's investigations (1884, 1886, 1900 and 1906). In the local annual for 1947: "Fra Ribe Amt", Georg Galster had written a survey: "The Mint of Ribe". A number of problems, with which Galster could not deal here, is now taken up by Axel Ernst for more thorough treatment. Thus the Ribe-bishop's right to the half of the coinage. It can hardly go as far back as to the time of Canute the Great (Chron. eccl. Rip.), but possibly to King Niels (Nicolas), if it is permissible to ascribe some coins of peculiar types to Bishop Thore (1114-34), fig. 1, or Bishop Elias (1142-62), fig. 2-4. Only Bishop Tuvo (1214-30) puts his name on the coin, fig. 5-6. By exchange in 1234 Bishop Gunner (fig. 7.) relinquished his half of the coinage, which thereupon belonged to the king alone until 1280. According to the author's opinion the king wanted to make Ribe the chief mint of the realm, and the right of coinage seems to have been farmed out by the king. At any rate it appears from the Roskilde bishop's record of judgments in 1293 that the location of the right of coinage was known. The coin fig. 8 is ascribed to the short reign - 1326-30- of King Valdemar, who in 1326 was eleven years old.

The Witten struck in Ribe (fig. 9.) are subjected to a thorough investigation; presumably they were struck in the 1370's by Ribe Town Council without royal assent after the pattern of the Witten of Lyneborg (fig. 10). For historical reasons the author thinks it possible to date this Witten-coinage to 1373 or shortly after, about 1377. Ribe Witten appear in a number of Danish and North-German finds, which testifies to a considerable coinage and to the extensive trade of Ribe. After an interval the coinage is resumed under Frederic I (1523-33) in the years 1524-26, some splendid coins (Noble, fig. 15-16), others 4-hvide, søslinge, and 14-pennies (fig. 11-14.), and finally antedated 4-shillings, 2-shillings, and shillings (fig. 17-19) were struck in the reign of Christian III in the years 1536-38.

The coins of Canute the Great ascribed by Hauberg to Ribe are also dealt with, those struck by SIRIC (fig. 20-21), which Hildebrand attributed to an uncertain English mint, but the reference of which to Ribe the author agrees with. Svend Estridsen's coin with SPEN ON RI (fig. 22), where the author interprets SPEN as the name of the king, not of the mintmaster; the coin with the year 1234 (fig. 23), which by N. L. Rasmusson and Galster are also referred to Ribe, while Hauberg ascribed it to Lund, together with the remaining coins of Valdemar Sejr after the acquisition of the bishop's share of the right of coinage in 1234 with the letters II, A, E and O (fig. 24-28). Finally a few remarks are made concerning the so-called Civil-War coins, the author agreeing with the reference to Odense of certain coins earlier ascribed to Ribe, thus fig. 30-31.

 

Tilbage til Dansk Mønts forside