88 



hundred or thousand, once by a measure which I cannot 

 interpret, ' the Waste.' " This entry is in 1482, and he 

 gives it as " 2j waste, 4d." Personally, I think there can be 

 no doubt this word should be read as " Wash," that being 

 a measure in everyday use in Whitstable even now. 



It would be interesting to know what was the probable 

 value of the half-penny in 1273, when that was the price 

 of one hundred oysters. It will be remembered that the 

 only coins of the Kings, down to Edward III., were silver 

 pennies. There were imaginary coins (money of account), 

 just as we might speak of a pound without reference to the 

 sovereign, and in Saxon and early English times, the 

 Scilling or Shilling was such an imaginary coin. 



William I. settled the Saxon Shilling at four pennies, but 

 also established a Norman Shilling at twelve pennies. 



Yet no actual coin representing a shilling appeared till the 

 reign of Henry VII. The first English pennies weighed 

 22^ grains troy of silver. Under Edward III. the same 

 coins weighed 18 grains, under Edward IV. 12 grains, and 

 under Edward VI. 8 grains. Half-pennies were formed by 

 cutting the penny into two pieces, the penny being marked 

 with a cross, possibly as a guide for division into two or 

 four parts. Curiosity is aroused by hearing that the price of 

 oysters in 1273 was a half -penny per hundred, but it is 

 extremely difficult to get at the real relationship of values 

 then and now. Adam Smith considered the prices of 

 wheat more suggestive of relative value than any other 

 commodity. In that same year wheat cost an average of 

 55. per quarter of 8 bushels, eggs were 3^,d. the great 

 hundred, which was 120, and butter was 6d. a gallon. 

 English wheat is now 28s. to 3os. per quarter, and within 



