The English pound sterling, in the time of Edward I, contained a pound, Tower weight, of silver of a known fineness. The Tower pound seems to have been something more than the Roman pound, and something less than the Troy pound. This last was not introduced into the mint of England till the 18th year of Henry VIII.

The French livre contained in the time of Charlemagne a pound, Troy weight, of silver of a known fineness. The fair of Troyes in Champaign was at that time frequented by all the nations of Europe, and the weights and measures of so famous a market were generally known and esteemed.

The Scots money pound contained, from the time of Alexander the First to that of Robert Bruce, a pound of silver of the same weight and fineness with the English pound sterling. English, French, and Scots pennies also contained all of them originally a real pennyweight of silver, the twentieth part of an ounce, and the two hundred and fortieth part of a pound.

The shilling, too, seems originally to have been the denomination of a weight. When wheat is at twelve shillings the quarter,says an ancient statute of Henry III, then wastel bread of a farthing shall weigh eleven shillings and fourpence.

The proportion, however, between the shilling and either the penny on the one hand, or the pound on the other, seems not to have been so constant and uniform as that between the penny and the pound. Among the ancient Saxons a shilling appears at one time to have contained only five pennies, and it is not improbable that it may have been as variable among them as among their neighbors, the ancient Franks.