Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

10

MONEY.

the money and coinage of his time. His three mintsi were at
London, Canterbury, and Oxford. In the league between Alfred and
Guthrum the Dane, both the mark2 and the mancus are named.
After the martyrdom of Edmund by the Danes, Guthrum was placed
on the throne of East Anglia, and on his conversion to Christianity
in 878 he took the name of Ethelstan. On the death of Alfred in
901, his son Edward, called the Elder, succeeded to the throne.
Athelstan, grandson of Alfred, began to reign 924 A.D., on the
death of his father Edward the Elder. He was the first who ordained
laws for the regulation of the coinage, and reduced the standard of
the Saxon shilling from five pennies to four pennies. In a grand
Synod four years after his succession, he decreed that there should
be one kind of money in use throughout the kingdom, and that no
one should coin but in a town. On his coins he is styled simply Rex,
or Rex Saxonum, or Rex Totius Britannic, the last a title not found
on any of the coins of his predecessors. He was the king of the West
Saxons by inheritance, of Mercia by election, and of the greater part
of the rest of Britain by conquest. In his laws occur the names
of all the denominations of money in use among the Anglo-Saxons.
He died in the year 940. A.D.
Edward II., called the Martyr, in 975 ascended the throne on the
death of his father Edgar. He had mints both at Oxford and at Cambridge, and it does not appear that he made any alteration in his
coins. He was put to death at the command of his stepmother to
make way for her son Ethelred, who was placed on the throne in the
1 In the first volume of the whole works of King Alfred the Great (2 vols., royal
8vo, 1858), nwill be found some account of the Anglo-Saxon Mint, with a description and impressions of all the coins of King Alfred known to be extant.
2 The mark, a certain weight of money, gold or silver, was introduced into
England most probably in the time of King Alfred, as marks of gold appear for
the first time in the league between that monarch and Guthrum, about A.D. 878.
In the treaty between Edward and Guthrum, the fines to be imposed on
Saxons and on Danes were stated differently; as for instance, the Saxon was
to pay 30 scillings and the Dane a mark and a-half; and again in another
part, where the Saxon was to forfeit 30 scillings, the Dane was fined 12 oras.
The silver mark was only in the tenth century estimated at 100 pennies,
and at 160 in A.D. 1194 according to Matthew Paris. The value of the mark at
160 pence or 13s. 4d. was long continued in payments of legal fees, fines, &c.
In the Judicia Civitatis Londonine, before the middle of the tenth century, a schilling was reckoned at 12 pennies. About the end of that century,
Archbishop ~Elfric names the schilling at 5 pennies. This discrepancy seems to
shew that there were two pennies in circulation, but of different values. And
Wilkins has shewn (p. 66, 71) that two distinct estimates of the scilling occur by
thrismas, which can only be reconciled by the supposition of the fact of two
shillings of different values being current at the time. It is uncertain when
arose the reckoning of 12 pennies to the solidus or shilling, and 20 shillings to the
pound. That revenue was so reckoned in England in Saxon times, is clear from
the Domesday Book:-" In Civitate Sciropescirie T. R. E. (i.e. Tempore Regis
Edvardi) erant CcLII..burgenses reddentes per annum vi lib. xvi solidos, et
viii dinar." In Athelstan's laws, the Thane's Weregild is computed at 1200
shillings, and said to be equal to the sixth part of 20 pounds. If 1200 shillings
were equivalent to 20 pounds, the pound or 240 pence must have been equal to
60 shillings of 4 pennies each shilling. This division continued to the Norman
times, and one of the Conqueror's laws places the matter beyond all doubt. It is
there stated, that the Saxon shilling was 4 pennies, and the preamble declares
that these laws were in force during Edward the Confessor's reign. " Ice les
meismes, que le Reis Edward sun cosin tint devant lui del dei apres le polcier
xv solz de solt Englois co est quer diners." The fine for the loss of the first
finger was xv solz, i.e. of the English solt, or solidus, which was four pennies.