LPJ Collection - The Commemoratives-Modern
2000 P LEIF ERICSON

Owner Comments:

2000 P PF68
Leif Ericson

Mintage: 144,748

Part of My Heritage Set

Dedicated to my Scandinavian heritage.

My genetic ethnicity ties me to Scandinavia which includes the present day nations of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The Vikings were feared by the coastal towns of medieval Europe as seaborne raiders and violent pillagers. They were also well-travelled merchants and ambitious explorers that raided the Mediterranean coast of Africa. They settled areas as far south as the Black Sea and traded with the Byzantine Empire. It was a Norse sailor named Leif Ericson who is credited with being the first European to travel to North America 500 years before Columbus.

The rise of the Viking culture spread Scandinavian ancestry throughout Europe. Their earliest coastal voyages took them to Scotland, northeastern England and established the settlement of Dublin, Ireland. As their power grew the Vikings spread farther along the Volga River to the coast of France and Spain. But perhaps their most famous accomplishments were the oceanic voyages across the Atlantic establishing villages in Iceland and Greenland and exploring the northern coast of Canada. Few of the early Scandinavian settlers are thought to have survived in the Americas however Iceland remains a society rooted in Scandinavian language and culture.