The king’s and the archbishop's coins
Magnus the Lawmender also introduced a coinage reform in the 1270s. Like his father, King Håkon Håkonsson, he had up to that time minted only thin bracteates, low value coins struck on one side only. The motif was a crowned head which represented the king. With this reform, Magnus reintroduced coins embossed on both sides with the value of a penny or a quarter penny.
His son, King Eirik Magnusson (1280–1299), continued this coin standard, but he also minted halfpennies. King Eirik was also the first to mint coins with a lion on a shield and St Olav’s axe in its paws, which is still used as Norway’s coat of arms.
The silver content of Norwegian medieval coins varied considerably. By reducing the silver content, the king could get more coins out of the same quantity of silver. The danger was that this could reduce confidence in the coins. The bracteate of Magnus the Lawmender contained 23% silver, while the later pennies contained approximately 20%. The silver content seems to have been further reduced during the reigns of King Eirik and his brother, King Håkon (1299–1319). Preserved coins from the Middle Ages have mostly been found in treasure hoards and in archaeological excavations below church floors. Some may have been slid between the floorboards as offerings by churchgoers, but most were lost during church services.
From 1228 until 1281, the archbishop of Nidaros also had the right to mint coins. This privilege was confirmed by Magnus the Lawmender in his reconciliation with Archbishop Jon Raude in 1277. Initially, it was probably primarily the revenue from coin production that was important to the archbishops. The king was to decide the stamps on the coins, which were confusingly similar to his own. However, the cunning Jon Raude minted a bracteate with a bishop’s head wearing a mitre (a bishop’s headdress). Eirik Magnusson’s guardian council, which wished to limit the power of the Church, abolished the archbishop’s right to mint coins in 1281. From 1458 to 1537, the archbishop was again allowed to mint coins. During the excavations at the archbishop’s estate in Trondheim in the 1990s, a medieval mint workshop was discovered, and one of the phases of its use is preserved as it was found.
