At 01:43 19/02/2008, you wrote:
> "the foreparte of the George of Dyamountes the Mayle
> of the curates and Rivet of the same of Siluer half
> gilte with a sworde in his hand of gold a lozenged
> Dyamounte like a sheelde and a Dragon of gold weying
> together iij oz di di quarter"
>
> "a little George of gold to hang at a Collar of
> garters weying one ounce quarter di"
>
> Thanks for any help with this.
>
> Kimiko
Joan, I believe, has the right explanation for the above citation, but
be careful. In some cases, a reference will be clear that the odd
units refer to money rather than weight. Such as:
'Item for the lynyng and mendyng of 2 vardgales 14d.' 1555. Petrie Archives
In this example, the costs are is 14d, where the d is denarius = a
unit of money. I'm not clear how or why the Brits kept using d to
refer to the old shilling coin. Perhaps it was a silver coin just as
the roman denarius was? I leave to someone from the other side of the
pond to explain further.
I believe that "d" is actually pence, not
shillings, in English money. We used to have,
prior to decimalisation on 15/2/71, a system of
pounds, shillings and pence, shortened to £.s.d.
Therefore the "14d" mentioned above is actually
14 pence, not shillings. I will try and check the
origins of the notation - but am busy, so it might take a while.
Suzi
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