218 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



of fixed weights, they had also, for the daily purposes of traffic, two small pieces 

 of silver, namely, the screpall or sigal, weighing twenty-four grains, and the 

 pinginn, weighing eight grains, which, there is every reason to believe, were 

 coins ; for, as the names, by which they were known, are obviously of foreign 

 introduction into the Irish language, and were undoubtedly denominations of 

 coined money in foreign countries, we have every right to conclude that they 

 were similarly applied to coined money in Ireland. But if we find pieces cor- 

 responding with these in weight, and indicating by their types an early anti- 

 quity, the fact seems placed beyond dispute. Such pieces we do find in our 

 rude bi-lateral coins, and in our bracteates, which are struck only on one side, 

 and may be considered as peculiarly Irish, being of a type wholly unlike the 

 bracteate money of any other nation. Were such names indeed found in Irish 

 authorities previously to their application to coins in other countries, it might 

 justly be concluded that they were mere denominations of weights of metals ; 

 but no such terms occur in the authentic documents of earlier date. There is 

 no mention of screpalls or pinginns in the Book of Rights, nor in the most 

 ancient Lives of St. Patrick, in which, however, we find most distinct reference 

 to the valuation of property by gold and silver in weight, as the following re- 

 markable passage from the Annotations of Tirechan will sufficiently show : 



Cumtnen ocup 6peclian Ochcep n-Gchio co n-a peilb, icep pio ocup tnaj 

 ocup lenu, co n-a lliup ocup a llubjopc. Ogoilep Din ou Chummin lech in ooppi po, in ooim, 

 in ouiniu, conpiccaoap a peuic ppie, .1. .111. unjai apjaic, ocupcpann apjjie, ocup muince, .111. 

 n-unjae co n-opocb oip pen-mepib penaipocib, log leich unjae 01 rnuccib, ocup log leieh unjjae 

 DI chaipib." Book of Armagh, Fol. 17, b. 1. 



" Cummin and Brethan purchased Ochter n-Achid with its appurtenances, both wood and 

 plain and meadow, with its fort and its garden. Half of this wood, and house, and dun, was mort- 

 main to Cummin, for which they paid [from~\ their treasure, viz. three ounces of silver, and a bar 

 of silver, and a collar, three ounces of the base gold of the old dishes of their seniors, [i. e. ancestors], 

 the equivalent of half an ounce in hogs, and the equivalent of half an ounce in sheep." 



It is to be observed, indeed, that the pieces corresponding with sigals or 

 screpalls found in Ireland, even when in good preservation, but seldom weigh 

 more than twenty-one or twenty-two grains ; and in like manner that those 

 corresponding with the pinginns, which are all bracteates, seldom weigh more 

 than seven ; and that such was the usual weight of the latter, in the ninth cen- 



