C 3^4 ] 
paid afterwards, thp' now and then intermitted in the heat of 
Danijh Wars, I fuppofe this Coyn came out of an Eccle- 
fiaftical Mint. 
(/J The true Original of Sterling is Starry. The Com- 
mon People obfcrving the CrofTes upon the Coyns, which 
looked hke fo many Scars, called them Sterlings y Starry pieces. 
Ling is an adjeftive Termination in the Saxon Language ; fo in 
time, the Word became Subftantive, and was ufed promifcu^ 
oufly for Penny. 
. {m) The 19 and 21 Reverfes are to be read alike, tho' 
poffibly they might be made from different Stamps. The Let- 
ters in both (for neither are very clear ) will mutually explain 
each other. I read it M 7^H F T H H OhlE, or Malmcf 
bury Mony : The h, which is an entire Letter, feems to have 
been taken from the fquare i^, or . 
( ) This P was the old Saxon \oiW\ fo it was Willetn^ 
not Pillem. The Saxon Charafter, which was full and plain, 
gave rife to that fmall beautiful Charafter which we ufually call 
the Roman Letter. The ancient Romans^ for ought as yet ap- 
pears to the contrary, wrote all with one uniform Charafter, 
fometimes greater and fometimes lefs, of the fame Figure with 
the great Letters in our Alphabet. This they took from the 
Greeks ; and it is ufual in all the Alphabets-of the Oriental Nati- 
ons. The threp Infcriptions in Gruter, (pag. 185'. 3. p. 652. z. 
p. 88x. 7. J only prove that they had our fmall /•,/>, i,h^ for 
we have no Hints in our MSS. of any others. After them 
fucceeded the Francick or Merovingian Charafter, entirely 
left off' in tranfcribing Books after Charlemagne. The Notaries 
kept it longer ; only by making it longer, they brought it to 
fomething like tho halica^ to whickit poffibly gave rife. The 
Specimens in Mahillons fourth Book de re Dt^lomatka, will 
put this pad doubt. All this while the Saxon Charafter was 
ufed in England, whofe Alphabet is evidently the fame with 
the fmali Roman, except fome Letters which exprefled Sounds 
proper to their Language, as )>, ^ : wherefore Alcuinus 
( Scholar to Egbert Arch-bifhop of Tork ) went over into 
France 
