29.2 'A. D. 1066. 



•ther told that even the battle-axes, fpears, &c. of thefe fplendid foldieri 

 were completely covered with gold. [Pl^. Malvijb. f. 43 a.] Of the 

 wealth of the great body of the people nothing is recorded ; and there 

 was moft probably nothing to be recorded, except that they were de- 

 voured by the unconfcionable avarice of their fupcriors. \j\^. Malmjh, 



£' 57 b.] 



Slaves and cattle conflituted that kind of property, ufually transferred 

 with the foil, which is often mentioned by the early Englifh writers 

 under the name of living money ; whereas money made of metal was 

 called dead money. 



It feems agreed upon by the learned, that, during the Anglo-Saxon 

 period of our hiflory, the nominal pound in money was a real pound of 

 filver in weight ; and that weight may, with great appearance of truth, 

 be prefumed to have been brought from Germany *. Authors agree, 

 that the pound was coined into 240 pennies ; but they vary greatly as 

 to the number of fhillings of account contained in the pound, fome 

 reckoning forty-eight fhillings of five pennies each, fome fixty, and fome 

 only twenty. The fliortefl abridgement that could be made of the ar- 

 guments and proofs in fupport ot the various opinions would be too 

 tedious to be admitted in this work, and would ftill be unfatisfadory to 

 thofe who wifh to invefligate the matter. I fhall only fuggeft, that it 

 is very probable, that in different parts of England, or in different ages, 

 the kings, who did not think of introducing a depretiated nominal 

 pound, divided the pound of filver, the only metal generally ufed for 

 current money, into a greater or leffer number of parts, which ftill re- 

 tained the fame names of pennies and fiiillings, though the later was 

 probably not a real coin till many ages after. The mark was alfo 

 not a real coin, but a denomination for two thirds of a pound, and was 

 apparently introduced by the Danes in the time of Alfred. The man- 

 cus, according to SXixic, \Grommat. p. 52] contained tliirty pennies, 

 and is fuppofed to have been a gold coin f , a little better than a third 

 part of our guinea. The thrymfa, ora, fceata, and the brafs ftyca, were 

 coins, or denominations of money, concerning which the learned are 

 not at all agreed. 



The proportion of filver to gold, in the Anglo-Saxon times, is gener- 

 ally believed to have been twelve to one. 



The Yutes, Saxons, and Angles, appear to have furpaffed the people 

 of the northern countries of Europe, whence they themfelves came, in 



* The oUl Saxon pound contained 5,400 grains Tables of Englip) coins. — C'arle on coins. — Tleel- 



of Ttoyc weight, or 1 2 ounces of 450 grains each, •wood's Chroiiicon prec'wfum, £s*r. 



The ftandard ounce of Cologne and Strafbiirg con- f This fuppofition is agaiiill the general belief, 



tains at prefent 451. ^(8 grains ; a rcfemblancc, or that no gold was coined in England iiefure the 



rather identity, not to be afcribed to accident. year 1344. See Pfggc''s DiJJertation on Angln^ 



For the nature of the Saxon money, the readc Haxon remains. 

 aiay confult Hickefii Difcrtatio epiJiolaris.—Folket't 



