XXXII. On the construction of the new imperial standard pound, and its copies of platinum; and on the comparison of the imperial standard pound with the kilogramme des archives

Abstract

The earliest legal standard of English weight, of which any very authentic account is preserved, is the weight called the pound of the Tower of London. According to Folkes, it was the old pound of the Saxon Moneyers before the Conquest. This pound was lighter than the troy pound by three-quarters of an ounce troy, and did not very sensibly differ from twelve ounces of the weight still used in the money affairs of Germany, and there known by the name of the Cologne weight. It is most probable that the pound of the Tower of standard silver was then cut up into 240 pennies; whence the weight of the penny will be 22·5 troy gmins. The silver pennies of the first two kings after the Conquest agree, as near as can be judged, in weight and goodness, with the pennies of the Saxon kings their immediate predecessors. It is therefore reasonable to think that King William introduced no new weight into his Mints. Clarke, in his Treatise on the connexion of Roman, Saxon and English Coins, p. 97, considers this evident from the words of William I.: 'Statuimus et præcipimus, quod habeant per universum regnum mensuras fidelissimas, et signatas; et pondera fidelissima, et signata, sicut boni prredecessores nostri statuerunt.' And also (p. 152) from one of the Conqueror's laws, where it is said, that the Saxon shilling was four pence (from the time of Athelstane), the preamble of which informs us, that these laws were in force during the Confessor's reign: 'Ice les meismes, que le Reis Edward sun Cosin tint devant lui.'