Abstract
THE thirteenth Annual Report of the Deputy Master of the Mint, just issued, contains some interesting information showing how persistently an ancient system of computing the value of bullion has survived in this country. The facts are fully set forth in an appendix to the Report by Prof. Chandler Roberts, who has recently and successfully advocated the adoption of the decimal system in the bullion transactions of the Mint. In order to make the matter clear, it may be well to state that the Troy pound, still used in this country for weighing the precious metals, is believed to have been derived from the Roman weight of 5759.2 grains, the 125th part of the large Alexandrian talent; this weight, like the Troy pound, having been divided by the Romans into 12 ounces. The earliest statute of this kingdom in which the Troy weight is named is the 2 Henry V. st. 2, c. 4, but the Troy weight is universally allowed to have been in general use from the time of King Edward I. The most ancient system of weights in this kingdom was the Moneyer's pound or the money pound of the Anglo-Saxons, which was continued in use for some centuries after the Conquest, being then known as the “Tower pound,” or sometimes the Goldsmith's pound. It contained 12 ounces of 450 grains each, or 5400 grains, and this weight of silver was a pound sterling. The Tower pound was abolished in 1527 by a statute of Henry VIII., which first established Troy weight as the only legal weight for gold and silver, and from this time to the present our system of coinage has been based on the Troy weight, the Troy pound containing 5760 grains.1
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A Curious Survival . Nature 28, 82–83 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/028082d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/028082d0