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Coin Balances in the Ashmolean Museum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Abstract

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Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1985

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References

Notes

37 Mayhew, N. J., ‘A tumbrel at the Ashmo-lean Museum’, Antiq. J. lv (1975), 394–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Mr Mayhew kindly discussed this and other tumbrels during the preparation of this note.

38 North, J. J., English Hammered Coinage, 2nd edn. (London, 1975), 11, 179:Google Scholar the standard weight for silver pennies of 1279-1344 is given here as 22-2 grains (1-44 g.).

39 North, , op. cit., gives 18 grains (117 g.)Google Scholar as the standard for silver pennies of 1351-1412.

40 North, , op. cit., gives 20-3 grains (132 g.)Google Scholar as standard for issues of 1344-46 and 20 grains (1-29 g.) for 1346-51. I am grateful to Mr Brian Spencer, F.S.A., of the Museum of London for details of the Billingsgate balance. This is currently in private ownership, having been recovered from thirteenth/fourteenth-century spoil removed from the site of the Lorry Park in 1984. The vertical element corresponds closely in form to that from Netherne (see note 42), but has a spike at the foot.

41 Mr Spencer suggests that groats and half-groats could have been checked in this way.

42 M. Dolley and L. Ketteringham, ‘The thirteenth century trébuchet-type coin balance’, in Ketteringham, L. L., Alsted: Excavation of a Thirteenth—Fourteenth Century Sub-Manor House with its Ironworks in Netherne Wood, Merstham, Surrey, Research Vol. Surrey Arch. Soc. 2 (1976), 62–3, pl. XIIIGoogle Scholar.

43 Hence the recess holding the coin in Dolley and Ketteringham's reconstruction (ibid.) is not, in fact, the coin tray but the slot into which the tray on the balance-arm would have fitted. The Netherne balance, if so reconstructed, would be close in form to that from London mentioned above.

44 Galster, G., ‘En seiger fra Ålborg’, Kuml, 1961, 116–24Google Scholar.

45 Mentioned by Dolley, and Ketteringham, , op. cit. (note 42), 62Google Scholar.

46 S. Margeson, in Coad, J. G. and Streeten, A. D. F., ‘Excavations at Castle Acre Castle, Norfolk, 1972-77’, Arch. J. cxxxix (1982), 244–5,Google Scholar fig. 46, 11.

47 See, for example, Crawforth, M. A., Sovereign Balances, 1: Standard Rockers (n.p., 1983), passimGoogle Scholar.

48 Kisch, B., Scales and Weights (New Haven, 1965), 65, fig. 26Google Scholar.

49 The pivot on no. 5 is in fact a modern replacement. Corrosion on the others makes accurate measurement extremely difficult.

50 I am grateful for advice on these balances to Mrs Helen Brown and Dr Nicholas Lowick; responsibility for the conclusions reached here must, however, be my own. On evidence for the use of one balance with several currencies, see note 52.

51 Sheppard, T. and Musham, J. F., Money Scales and Weights (1975)Google Scholar(reprinted from Numismatic Circular, 1920-1923), no. 291Google Scholar [thought to be Turkish]; Maker, J. L. & Co., Auction XXVI: Weights and Scales (Encino, California, 1984), lot 126Google Scholar [‘Islamic’]. Like the balance-arm cited in note 48, both these bone scales have small lead weights countersunk in the tail of the balance-arm to achieve equilibrium at the appropriate weights.

52 A., D. and Colker, J. S., ‘A few of our scales’, Equilibrium, Winter 1979-1980, 190–1.Google Scholar The denominations for which this balance was intended are indicated by figures marked on the coin trays representing numbers of piastres and corresponding to various Greek, Turkish and Egyptian issues. Another example is in the Science Museum, London (no. 1928.1075).

53 Kisch, , op. cit. (note 48), 65, fig. 28Google Scholar.

54 Dolley, and Ketteringham, , op. cit. (note 42), 62–3Google Scholar.

55 Mayhew, , op. cit. (note 37), 395Google Scholar.