MONEY. 659 
In t'ne foregoing Tables, double pieces, and the frac¬ 
tional parts of coins, are generally omitted', efpecially 
where they are of the fame ftandard, and of the due pro¬ 
portional weight. Thus, double and half louis-d’ors are 1 
omitted, as their weight and value may be found from 
the fmgle louis-d’or; and fo of the reft. 
It fhould be alfo obferved, that the finenefs of gold and 
filver, in the foregoing tables, is expreffed in the Englifh 
manner ; although a difference prevails in this refpedt in 
moft countries. Some nations exprefs the finenefs of gold, 
like the Englifh, byfuppofing the whole weight to be di¬ 
vided into 24 equal parts, or carats; but the diviiions of 
the carat vary. In America, Turkey, Spain, and Portu¬ 
gal, the carat is divided, as in England, into 4 grains ; in 
Holland, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark, it is divided 
into 12 grains ; in Genoa and Leghorn, it is divided into 8 ; 
in Rome, Milan, and other parts of Italy, into 24 parts ; 
and in the old fyftem of France the carat was divided into 
32 parts; but in all the above places, the number of ca¬ 
rats is 24. The finenefs of filver in Holland, Portugal, 
Spain, and moft parts of Italy, is expreffed by dividing the 
unit or pound into 12 parts, called deniers, denari, or 
penny-weights ; in Genoa, the pound of fine filver is di¬ 
vided into 12 ounces, and the ounce into 24 denari; in 
Germany, Swifferland, Denmark, and Sweden, the mark 
is divided into 16 loths, and the loth into 16 grains; In 
Turkey, they reckon, for filver, 100 carats, and each carat 
is 4 grains. 
In fome countries, the exprefiion of finenefs, both of 
gold and filver, is the fame. Thus, in France, according 
to the new fyftem, any qtiantity of either metal is fup- - 
poked to be divided into 1000 equal parts, called milliemes. 
In Ruflia, they reckon the pound of each metal at 96 fo- 
lotnicks ; in Venice, at 1152 carats. In China, and the 
Eaft Indies, pure gold or filver is faid to be 100 touch, 
and the degrees of finenefs are expreffed by the 100th 
parts; thus 90 touch means 90 parts of pure metal and 
10 of alloy, that is -j%ths fine. It may alfo be ufeful to 
know, that the affayers of gold and filver in England, in 
their reports, do not exprefs the finenefs (as it is in thefe 
tables) by the whole proportion of pure metal and its 
alloy ; but by the quantity in which it differs from the 
Englifh ftandard. Thus, a Dutch ducat is ftated to be 
1 carat 2 grains B. that is, better than Englifh ftandard, 
which means that it is 23 carats 2 grains fine ; and a 
French filver piece of 5 francs is ftated to be 7 dwts. W. 
that is, worfe than Englifh ftandard. 
We have hinted, that other lubftances befides the pre¬ 
cious metals are ufed in fome countries for money, and 
which of courfe could not have been introduced into the 
preceding Tables. Thus, fhells ferve in many places for 
money; thefe are brought from the Maldives, and called 
in the Indies cowries: on the coafts of Africa, they change 
their names and are called bouges: in America they take a 
third name, viz .porcelains. Indeed thefe laft do not come 
from the Maldives; fhells being found in the Weft In¬ 
dies much like thofe of the Eaft. In the kingdom of 
Congo there is another kind of fhells, called ; though 
fome will have them the fame with the cowries. Cowries, 
coris, or bouges, are white fhells, current particularly in 
the ltates of the great Mogul: fixty-five are ufually rec¬ 
koned equivalent to the clone, which is a fmall copper 
coin, worth about a halfpenny fterllng; which brings 
each cowry to ^-j^th of a penny fterling. Porcelains are 
nearly on the fame footing with the cowries. Zimbi are 
current, particularly in the kingdoms of Angola and 
Congo. Two thoufand zimbis make what the negroes 
call a muciute, or macoute-, which is no real money, whereof 
there is none in this part of Africa, but only a manner of 
reckoning : thus, two Flemifh knives they efteem a ma- 
coute; a copper bafon, two pounds weight and twelve 
inches diameter, three macoutes; a fufil, ten, &c. 
There are three kinds of fruits current for coins: two 
in America, particularly among the Mexicans, which are 
the cacao and maize; the other in the Eaft Indies, viz. 
almonds, brought thither from Lar, and growing in the 
deferts of Arabia. Of cacao, fifteen are efteemed equi¬ 
valent to a Spanifh rial, or feven-pence fterling. Maize 
has ceafed to be a common money fince the difcovery 
of America by the Europeans. Almonds are chiefly ufed' 
where the cowries are not current. As the year proves 
more or lefs favourable to this fruit, the value of the mo-' 
neyis higher or lower: in a common year, forty almonds- 
are fet againft a percha, or halfpenny fterling ; which 
brings each almond to ^th of a farthing. 
Of BRITISH MONEY. 
After the arrival of the Romans in this ifland, the Bri¬ 
tons imitated them, coining both gold and filver with the 
images of their kings ftamped on them. When the Ro¬ 
mans had fubdued the kings of the Britons, they alfo fup- 
preffed their coins, and brought in their own; which 
were current here from the time of Claudius to that of 
Valentinian the younger, about the fpace of 500 years. 
Mr. Camden obferves, that the moft ancient Englilh 
coin he had known was that of Ethelbert king of Kent, 
the firft Chriftian king in the ifland ; in whole time all 
money-accounts begin to pafs by the names of pounds, 
Jh tilings, pence, and mancufes. Pence feems borrowed from 
the Latin pecunia, or rather from pendcfon account of its 
juft weight, which was about threepence of our money. 
Thefe were coarfely ftamped with the king’s image on 
the one fide, and either the mint-mafter’s, or the city’s 
where it was coined, on the other. Five of thefe pence 
made their fchilling, probably fo called ofJciliugus, which 
the Romans ufed for the fourth part of an ounce. Forty 
of thefe fchillings made their pound ; and 400 of thefe 
pounds were a legacy or portion for a king’s daughter, 
as appears by the laft will of king Alfred. By thefe names 
they tranflated all fums of money in their old Englilh 
Teftament; talents by pundes-, Judas’s thirty pieces of 
filver by tlrirlig fcillinga-, tribute money, by penniubig ; 
the mite by / cor tiding. But it mull be obferved, they had 
no other real money, but pence only; the reft being ima¬ 
ginary moneys, i.e. names of numbers of weights. Thirty 
of thefe pence made a mancus, which fome take to be the 
fame with a mark; manca, as appears by an old manu- 
fcript, was quinta pars uncia. Thefe mancas or mancufes 
were reckoned both in gold and lilver. For in the year 
680 we read that Ina king of the Weft Saxons obliged the 
Kentilhmen to buy their peace at the price of 30,000 man¬ 
cas of gold. In the notes on king Canute’s laws, we find 
this diftindlion : that mancufa was as much as a mark of di¬ 
ver ; and manca, a fquare piece of gold, valued at 30 pence. 
The Saxon money was fometimes reckoned by pennies; 
but the name for money moft frequently occurring in the 
charters is the mancus, the value of which was fix Dril¬ 
lings, or thirty pennies, five pennies making one Drilling. 
But by the laws of Alfred there were two forts of pen¬ 
nies, the greater and the lefs. The money mentioned 
in our earlieft law, confifts of Drillings, and a minor (urn 
called fccetta. In the laws of Ina the peering occurs, 
and the pund as a weight. In thofe of Alfred the pund 
appears as a quantity of money, as well as the Dril¬ 
ling and the penny: but the Drilling is the ufual nota¬ 
tion of his pecuniary punifhments. In his treaty w-ith 
the Danes, the half-mark of gold, and the mancus, are 
the names of the money; as is the ora in the Danilh com¬ 
pact with Edward. In the law-s of Ethelllan, we find the 
thnjmJ'a, as well as the (hilling and the penny; the fesetta 
and the pund. The (hilling, the penny, and the pound, 
appear under Edgar. In the time of Ethelred, the pound 
is frequently the amount of the money noticed. The 
Drilling and penny, the healf-marc, and the ora, alfo oc¬ 
cur. In the charters we find pennies, mancufa, pounds, 
(hillings, and ficli, mentioned. As no Anglo-Saxon gold 
coins have reached modern times, though we have nu¬ 
merous fpecimens of their filver coinage, it is prefumed 
by antiquaries that none were ever made; yet it js cer¬ 
tain that they had plenty of gold, and it perpetually 
formed the medium of their purchafes or gifts. Mr.Tur- 
ner is of opinion, that, in the concerns of life, gold was 
1 ufetL, 
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