218 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2-^ s. no 115.. map. 13. '68. 



quently of a superior standard, korn is used, 

 thirdly, in describing gold or silver that is pure 

 and of good quality. 



With hoi'n is often joined school, which pro- 

 perly signifies small shot. Thus, " Eine Munze 

 von guteni Schrot und Korn " signifies a coin of 

 full weight and value (literally, of good shot and 

 grain). The term korniihre (ear of corn) has 

 been applied to a rich ore in the Hessian silver- 

 mines. 



But few traces of this idea, which associates 

 the grain of corn, the metallic globule, and the 

 intrinsic purity, are to be met with in mediaeval 

 Latin. We do find, however, in Du Cange, the 

 phrase "Moneta cum granis." "An. 1112 , nummi 

 mutati sunt, et cum granis alii facti sunt," which 

 appears to signify, " The deteriorated currency 

 was set aside, and a better and more sterling sub- 

 stituted." Perhaps some of your readers may be 

 able to confirm or correct this rendering. Let it 

 also be mentioned that there was a gold coin called 

 granata or grana, " moneta aurea Cracoviensis." 



Korn, a grain, as applied to the pi-ecious metals, 

 may remind us of the Californian pipita (pip of a 

 melon, cucumber, or orange), and also of the Aus- 

 tralian nugget. 



Still, while we thus connect coron with the 

 German korn, we would not question that, in 

 common parlance, korn or coron may, from simi- 

 larity of sound, have become connected, as your 

 correspondent J. P. suggests, with the Latin co- 

 rona and the French couronne, both which terms 

 are applied to coins. This is the more possible, 

 because we find crown in old English spelt coroune 

 and corone : " a coroune of grene oke " — "of roses 

 and of lilie Corones two " (Chaucer). 



But in tracing the origin of words, as the 

 learned Bopp reminds us, we must not be drawn 

 aside by similarity of sounds : when the letters 

 are the same, it is no sport. The corona or cou- 

 ronne does not appear to have determined any- 

 thing as to the value or standard of the metal, 

 which is what both korn and coron distinctly 

 point to; but rather to have been simply the 

 crown, with which many French coins were im- 

 pressed : " cum corona, a la couronne, in quibus 

 efficta corona " (Du Cange). And just as there 

 were some coins "cum corona," so were there 

 others " cum scuto," " cum leone," " cum angelo," 

 &c., according as they were stamped respectively 

 with a shield, a lion, or an angel. Under Ludo- 

 vicus XIL were coined " denarii cum L. coronato 

 (deniers a I'L. couronnee)." This was simply the 

 initial L. of Ludovicus, with a crown. 



The passage in which Lambert employs the 

 word coron plainly indicates that his allusion was 

 to the korn, grain or metallic globule purified in 

 the coppel, not to the crown stamped upon the 

 coin. He writes thus : 



V Christ's law in tho psalme for the purenes is called 



argentum igne examinatum purgatum sextuplum. Silver 

 coron and fined often and many sithes thorowe fier. It 

 hath no chaffe in it, as hath mens traditions, hut is pure 

 cleane uihete." 



Here the reference is plainly to (he coron or 

 korn, in its primary signification of coi-n or grain. 



It is a noteworthy circumstance that this word 

 coron, which appears in the first edition of Foxe, 

 1563, has in subsequent editions dropped out. 

 Whoever is responsible for this alteration, and 

 whenever it was first made, permit me in con- 

 clusion to say a word on the grave responsibility 

 incurred by those who presume to alter an old 

 writer. This is what has made shambles of Shaks- 

 peare. See what a mess is made of the above 

 passage from honest John Lambert by omitting 

 the word co?-on. He first speaks of silver fined 

 through fire, then adds, there is no chaff in it. 

 " How incongruous ! " might a modern reader 

 exclaim ; " what has chaff to do with wheat ? 

 What nonsense ! " But restore the omitted word 

 coron, and it at once becomes evident that, so far 

 from rambling, Lambert actually hugs his sub- 

 ject. The silver is coron, grain pure and clean. 

 Ergo, " it hath no chaffe in it, it is pure cleane 

 whete." Thomas Boys. 



THE TIN TRADE OP ANTIQUITY. 



(2"-^ S. v. 101.) 



The author of the Periplus of the Erythr.'can 

 Sea, which bears the name of Arrian, mentions tin 

 as an article of import into the following places : 

 namely, Port Avalites in Abyssinia, near the 

 entrance of the Red Sea (c. 7.), Cane on the 

 southern coast of Arabia, whither this metal was 

 brought from Egypt {ib. 28.) ; and two Indian em- 

 poria, one, the port of Barygaza, at the mouth of 

 the Nerbudda, north of Bombay, and the other 

 the port of Bacare on the Malabar coast. (lb. 

 49. 56., ed. C. Mliller.) 



The author of this Periplus is proved by in- 

 ternal evidence to have been an Egyptian mer- 

 chant who wrote at the end of the first century 

 after Christ. (See C. Miiller's Prolegomena to 

 his recent edition of the Geographi Grceci Minoi'es, 

 vol. i. p. 97.) These passages therefore prove 

 nothing with regard to the tin trade in remote 

 antiquity. 



• Dr. Vincent, in his learned work on The Com- 

 merce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian 

 Ocean (2 vols. 4to., 1807) supports the general 

 opinion that the tin imported in early times into 

 the Mediterranean was of British origin. 



" Tin " (he says), " the staple of Britain, is men- 

 tioned in the most ancient authors neither as a rare, nor 

 a very precious metal : this must have been introduced to 

 the nations on the Mediterranean either bj' a transport 

 over land (such as is mentioned by Diodoius), or through 

 the medium of a Phenician navigation ; the existence of 



