The first money
People brought coins to the Nordic region for the first time almost two thousand years ago. The coins came from the Roman Empire and had travelled north along the trade routes.
The first Swedish coins were produced at the end of the Viking Age. But most people still paid with food, cloth or other useful items. Slowly, over several hundred years, people got used to using coins. The new money was small and durable, and made trading easier.
Eventually, this changed the way people understood the world and one another. Time, work, land, food and sometimes people – everything began to be valued and compared.
