Notes & Queries Archive
QUERY1850

Weights for Weighing Coins

By H. E.

A correspondent wishes to know at what period weights were introduced for weighing coins. He has met with two notices on the subject in passages of Cottonian manuscripts, and would be glad of farther information. In a MS. Chronicle, Cotton. Otho B. xiv.— "1418. Novæ bilances instituuntur ad ponderanda aurea Numismata." In another Cottonian MS., Vitell. A. i., we read— "1419. Here bigan gold balancis."

Topics: Weights for Weighing Coins, Cottonian Manuscripts