There are certainly some interesting points of agreement between the weights and the gold ornaments, e.g. the weights of 220, 390, 414, 630, have corresponding weights in gold. The largest weight may be 4-1/2 oz. of 410 grs.
Let us now return to the Irish monetary system, and see if we can determine more accurately its relation to that of Rome.
8 grains of wheat = 1 pinginn.
24 " " = 3 pinginns = 1 screapall.
576 " " = 72 " = 24 screapalls = 1 unga.
As regards unga and screapall we have spoken already. Of their origin there is no doubt. The pinginn on the other hand is not so easy. The name is certainly Teutonic, said to be ultimately a loan word formed from pecunia. It seems to have been employed as a general term for the smallest form of currency. Hence we find the Saxon form (pendinga) applied to the 240th part of the lb., and of about 32 grs. wheat, and the Norse peningr used for the 240th part of the mark, whilst in Ireland the cognate form is applied to the 72nd part of the ounce, and is of the weight of 8 grains wheat.
The Irish employed the system of Uncia and Scripula. Shall we say then that this system was in vogue in Britain likewise before the time of Constantine and yielded slowly before the later one?
Since then it was common to the Kelts on both sides of the Irish Sea, and we find that in Ireland it was grafted upon an earlier system, of which the crosoch is a survival, we may reasonably infer that the Kelts of Britain had likewise a native system analogous to the crosoch. But further, of this we have strong evidence of two kinds. Caesar B. G. v. 12, when describing the British Kelts and their manners, says; pecorum magnus numerus. Utuntur aut aere aut nummo aureo aut annulis ferreis ad certum pondus examinatis pro nummo[1]. The passage has been mutilated by Editors, but this is the reading of the best MSS. Caesar thus tells us that they had
- ↑ Beside the difficulty about numo aureo there is a further variant between anulis ferreis and taleis ferreis (bars of iron). Can Caesar have in reality written both? May the original reading have been: utuntur aut aere aut numo aureo, aut aureis anulis, aut taleis ferreis etc.? Caesar speaks of the Britons having iron of their own, and it is highly probable that they employed ingots or bars of it as money, as the wild tribes of Annam and Africa do at present. They probably used their gold or bronze rings and armlets as money also.
