The Viking economy At the start of the Viking era, circa 800 CE, the Vikings used precious metals, usually silver, as a means of exchange. Silver existed in the form of bars, or as jewellery, and was chopped into pieces of the correct weight when people wanted to exchange the metal for goods. The Vikings later came into contact with coins by trading with Western Europe and the Islamic world. However, they valued these imported coins for their weight and the quality of the metal, rather than according to the value written on the coins. Foreign coins were often chopped up into smaller pieces, or melted down to make jewellery, like arm rings, or to decorate weapons.