APPENDIX. No. II. MONEY OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. The statements mentioned in Domesday-book are stated in pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings, exactly as our pecuniary calculations are now made. Twenty shillings constitute a pound, and a shilling is composed of twelve pence. The same computation occurs elsewhere. Elfric, in his translation of Exodus (1), adds, of his own authority, "They are twelve scythinga of twelve pennies;" and in the monies mentioned in the Historia Eliensis, edited by Gale, we find numerous passages which ascertain that a pound consisted of twenty shillings. Thus, three hides were sold by a lady to an abbot for a hundred shillings each. The owner is afterwards said to have come to receive the fifteen pounds. When seven pounds and a half only had been paid, the ealdorman asked the abbot to give the lady more of her purchase money. At his request the abbot gave thirty shillings more; thus, it is added, he paid her nine pounds. On another occasion the money agreed for was thirty pounds. One hundred shillings were received, and twenty-five pounds were declared to remain due (2). The Saxon money was sometimes reckoned by pennies, as the French money is now by livres. Thus, in one charta, three plough-lands are conveyed for three thousand pennies. In another, eighty acres were bought for three hundred and eighty-five pennies. In another one thousand four hundred and fifty pennies occur (3). The name for money, which is oftenest met with in the charters, is the mancus. On this kind of money we have one curious passage of Elfric : he says, five pennies make one shilling, and thirty pennies one mancus (4). This would make the mancus six shillings. The passage in the laws of Henry the First intimates the same (5). Two passages in the Anglo-Saxon laws seem to confirm Elfric's account of the mancus being thirty pennies ; for an ox is valued at a mancus in one, and at thirty pence in another (6). But there is an apparent contradiction in five pennies making a shilling, if twelve pennies amounted to the same sum. The objection would be unanswerable, but that, by the laws of Alfred, it is clear that there were two sorts of pennies, the greater and the less; for the violation of a man's borg was to be compensated by five pounds, mærra peninga, of the larger pennies (7). (1) Chap. xxi. 10. (3) Astle's MS. Chart. Nos. 7. 22. 28. (2) 3 Gale, Script. p. 473.; and see 485. 488. (4) Hickes, Diss. Ep. 109. and Wan. Cat. MS. 113. (5) Debent reddi secundum legem triginta solidi ad Manbotam, id est, hodie 5 mancæ Wilk. p. 265. So p. 249. (6) Wilk. p. 66. and 126. Yet this passage is not decisive, because the other accompa nying valuations do not correspond. (7) Ibid. 35. The mark is sometimes mentioned; this was half a pound, according to the authors cited by Du Fresne (1); it is stated to be eight ounces by Aventinus (2). The money mentioned in our earliest law consists of shillings, and a minor sum called scætta. In the laws of Ina, the pening occurs, and the pund as a weight. In those of Alfred the pund appears as a quantity of money, as well as the shilling and the penny; but the shilling is the usual notation of his pecuniary punishments. In his treaty with the Danes, the half-mark of gold, and the mancus, are the names of the money; as is the ora in the Danish compact with Edward. In the laws of Athelstan, we find the thrymsa, as well as the shilling and the penny; the scætta and the pund. The shilling, the penny, and the pound, appear under Edgar. The ora and the healf-marc pervade the Northumbrian laws. In the time of Ethelred, the pound is frequently the amount of the money noticed. The shilling and penny, the healf-marc, and the ora, also occur (3). The Anglo-Saxon wills that have survived to us mention the following money: In the archbishop Elfric's will we find five pundum, and fifty mancusan of gold (4). In Wynflæd's will, the mances of gold, the pund, the healfes pundes wyrthne, and sixty pennega wyrth, are noticed. In one part she desires that there should be put, in a cup which she bequeaths, healf pund penega, or half a pound of pennies. In another part she mentions sixteen mancusum of red gold; also thirty penéga wyrth (5). In Thurstan's will, twelf pund be getale occurs. In Godric's we perceive a mark of gold, thirteen pounds, and sixty-three pennies (6). In Byrhtric's will, sixty mancos of gold and thirty mancys goldes are mentioned; and several things are noticed, as of the value of so many gold mancus. Thus, a bracelet of eighty mancysan goldes, and a necklace of forty mancysa; a hand secs of three pounds is also bequeathed, and ten hund penega (7). In Wulfar's will, the mancus of gold is applied in the same way to mark the value of the things bequeathed, and also to express money (8). The mancus of gold is the money given in Elfhelm's will; in Dux Elfred's, pennies; in Ethelwryd, both pennies and the pund occur. In Athelstan's testament we find the mancosa of gold, the pund of silver, the pund be getale, and pennies (9). In the charters we find pennies, mancusa, pounds, shillings, and sicli, mentioned. In one we find one hundred sicli of the purest gold (10); and in another, four hundred sicli in pure silver (11). In a third, fifteen hundred of shillings in silver are mentioned, as if the same with fifteen hundred sicli (12). The shilling also at another time appears as if connected with gold, as seventy shillings of auri obrizi (13). Once we have two pounds of the purest gold (14). The expressions of pure gold, or the purest gold, are o.ten added to the mancos. That the pound was used as an imaginary value of money, is undoubted. One grant says, that an abbot gave in money quod valuit, what was of the value of one hundred and twenty pounds (15). Another has four pounds of (1) Du Fresne, Gloss. ii. p. 437. (10) The late Mr. Astle's MS. Charters, (13) Mr. Astle's Charters, No. 28. b. lic-wyrthes feos (1), which means money or property agreeable to the party receiving it. We read also of fifteen pounds of silver, gold, and ehattels (2); also sixty pounds in pure gold and silver (3). Sometimes the expression occurs, which we still use in our deeds, "One hundred pounds of lawful money (4).” As no Anglo-Saxon gold coins have reached modern times, though of their silver coinage we have numerous specimens, it is presumed by antiquaries that none were ever made. Yet it is certain that they had plenty of gold, and it perpetually formed the medium of their purchases and gifts. My belief is, that gold was used in the concerns of life, in an uncoined state (5), and to such a species of gold money I would refer such passages as these fifty" mancussa asodenes gold," "sexies viginti marcarum auri pondo," "appensuram novem librarum purissimi auri juxta magnum pondus Normannorum, ‚" "eighty mancusa auri purissimi et sex pondus electi argenti," ""duo uncias auri." I think that silver also was sometimes passed in an uncoined state, from such intimations as these: "twa pund mere hwites seolfres," and the above mentioned "sex pondus electi argenti." The expressions that pervade Domesday-book imply, in my apprehension, these two species of money, the coined and the uncoined. Seventy libras pensatis, like two uncias auri, are obviously money by weight. But money ad numerum, or arsurum, I interpret to be coined money; also the pund be getale. The phrases, sex libras ad pensum et arsuram et triginta libras arsas et pensatas, appear to me to express the indicated weight of coined money. The words arsas and arsuram I understand to allude to the assay of coin in the mint. Whether the mancus was, like the pund, merely a weight, and not a coin, and was applied to express, in the same manner as the word pound, a certain quantity of money, coined or uncoined, I cannot decide; but I incline to think that it was not a coin. Indeed there is one passage which shows that it was a weight, "duas bradiolas aureas fabrefactus quæ pensarent xlv mancusas (6)." I consider the two sorts of pennies as the only coins of the Anglo-Saxons above their copper coinage, and am induced to regard all their other denominations of money as weighed or settled quantities of uncoined metal (7). That money was coined by the Anglo-Saxons in the octarchy, and in every reign afterwards, is clear from those which remain to us. Most of them have the mint-master's name. It does not appear to me certain, that they had coined money before their invasion of England, and conversion. It was one of Athelstan's laws, that there should be one coinage in all the king's districts, and that no mint should be outside the gate. If a coiner was found guilty of fraud, his hand was to be cut off, and fastened to the mint smithery (8). In the time of Edgar, the law was repeated, that the king's coinage should be uniform; it was added, that no one should refuse it, and that it should measure like that of Winchester (9). It has been men (1) Heming. Chart. p. 180. (3) Heming. Chart. p. 8. (2) 3 Gale, p. 410. (5) One coin has been adduced as a Saxon gold coin. See Pegge's Remains. But its pretensions have not been admitted. (6) Heming. Chart. p. 86. (7) It is the belief of an antiquarian friend, who has paid much attention to this subject, that even the Saxon scyllinga was a nominal coin; as he assures me no silver coin of that value has been found which can be referred to the Saxon times. (8) Wilk. Leg. Sax. p. 59. (9) Ibid. p. 78. tioned of Edgar, that finding the value of the coin in his reign much diminished by the fraud of clipping, he had new coins made all over England. We may add a few particulars of the coins which occur in Domesdaybook. Sometimes a numeration is made very similar to our own, as 11l13s. 4d. Sometimes pounds and sometimes shillings are mentioned by themselves. In other places some of the following denominations are inserted : Una marka argenti, Tres markas auri, c solidos et unam unciam auri, xxiv libras et unciam auri, xx libras et unam unciam auri, et un. marcum, xxv libras ad pond, 1 libras appretiatas, xiv libras arsas et pensatas, et v libras ad numerum, cvi libras arsas et pensatas, et x libras ad numerum, xxii libras de alb. denariis, ad pensum hujus comitis, xvi libras de albo argento, xlvii libras de albo argento xvi denariis minus, xxiii lib. denar. de xx in ora, xv lib. de xx in ora, iii solid. de den. xx in ora, et xxvi denar. ad numerum, v oris argenti, i denarium, i obolum, i quadrantem, viii libras et xx denar. (1). It seems reasonable to say, that such epithets as purissimi auri, and æsodenes gold, that is, melted gold, refer to money paid and melted. But if the Saxon silver coins were only the larger and smaller pennies, what then was the scyllinga? In the translation of Genesis, the word is applied to express the Hebrew shekels (2). In the New Testament, thirty (1) The meaning of arsas and arsuram, as applied to money, is explained in the Black Book of the Exchequer to be the assay of money. The money might be sufficient in number and weight, yet not in quality. It by no means followed that twenty shillings, which constituted a pound weight, was, in fact, a pound of silver, because copper or other metal might be intermixed when there was no examination. For this reason, the books say that the bishop of Salisbury instituted the arsura in the reign of Henry the First. It is added, that if the examined money was found to be deficient above sixpence in the pound, it was not deemed lawful money of the king. Liber Niger Scacarii, cited by Du Cange, Gloss. 1. p. 343. The bishop cannot, however, have invented the arsura in the reign of Henry, because Domesday-book shows that it was known in the time of the Conqueror. In Domesday-book it appears that the king had this right of assay only in a few places. Perhaps the bishop, in a subsequent reign, extended it to all money paid into the exchequer. An intelligent friend has favoured me with the following extract from Domesday : "Totum manerium T. R. E. et post valuit xl libras. Modo similiter xl lib. Tamen redditl lib. ad arsuram et pensum, quæ valent lxv lib." Domesday, vol. i. fo. 15. b. This passage seems to express, that 651. of coined money was only worth 50l. in pure silver, according to the assay of the mint. Whether this depreciation of the coin existed in the Saxon times, or whether it followed from the disorders and exactions of the Norman conquest, I have not ascertained. (2) See Genesis, in Thwaite's Heptateuch. pieces of silver, which the Gothic translates by the word six »BKIN, or silver, the Saxon version calls (1) scyllinga. The etymology of the word scyllinga would lead us to suppose it to have been a certain quantity of uncoined silver; for, whether we derive it from scylan, to divide, or sccale, a scale, the idea presented to us by either word is the same; that is, so much silver cut off, as in China, and weighing so much. I would therefore presume the scyllinga to have been a quantity of silver, which, when coined, yielded five of the larger pennies, and twelve of the smaller. The Saxon word scat or sceat, which occurs in the earliest laws as a small definite quantity of money, is mostly used to express money generally. I would derive it from sceat, a part or division; and I think it meant a definite piece of metal originally in the uncoined state. The sceat and the scyllinga seem to have been the names of the Saxon money in the Pagan times, before the Roman and French ecclesiastics had taught them the art of coining. The value of the scat in the time of Ethelbert would appear, from one sort of reasoning, to have been the twentieth part of a shilling. His laws enjoin a penalty of twenty scyllinga for the loss of the thumb, and three scyllinga for the thumb-nail. It is afterwards declared that the loss of the great toe is to be compensated by ten scyllinga, and the other toes by half the price of the fingers. It is immediately added, that for the nail of the great toe thirty sceatta must be paid to boot (2). Now as the legislator expresses that he is estimating the toes at half the value of the fingers, and shows that he does so in fixing the compensation of the thumb and the great toe, we may infer, that his thirty sceattas for the nail of the great toe were meant to be equal to half of the three scyllinga which was exacted for the thumb-nail. According to this reasoning, twenty sceatta equalled one scyllinga. About three centuries later, the scatta appears somewhat raised in value, and to be like one of their smaller pennies; for the laws of Athelstan declare thirty thousand scatta to be cxx punda (5). This gives two hundred and fifty sceatta to a pound, or twelve and a half to a scyllinga. Perhaps, therefore, the sceat was the smaller penny, and the pening, properly so called, was the larger one. We may be curious to enquire into the etymology of the pening. The word occurs for coin in many countries. In the Franco-theotise, it occurs in Otfrid as (4) pfenning; and on the continent one gold pfenning was declared to be worth ten silver pfennings (5). It occurs in Icelandic, in the ancient Edda, as penning (6). The Danes still use penge as their term for money or coin; and if we consider the Saxon penig as their only silver coin, we may derive the word from the verb punian, to beat or knock, which may be deemed a term applied to metal coined, similar to the Latin, cudere (7). (1) Matthew, xxvii. 3. (3) Wilk. Leg. Anglo-Sax. p. 72. (2) Wilkins, Leg. Anglo-Sax. p. 6. (5) I. Alem. prov. c. 299. cited by Schilter in his Glossary, p. 657. (6) Ægis drecka, ap. Edda Sæmundi, p. 168. (7) Schilter has quoted an author who gives a similar etymology from another language, "Pænings nomine pecunia tantum numerata significat, a pána, quod est cudere, signare.” Gloss. Teut. p. 657. |