EARLY MEDIEVAL WEIGHT

A Late Saxon discoidal lead weight with a cast openwork copper alloy sheath or cover. On both faces, two sub-triangular and two D-shaped apertures are outlined by a reserved pair of addorsed C-shapes. The edge is convex. The surface of the lead within the apertures is not flush with that of the sheath, but is pitted to varying depths. It measures 27mm in diameter, is 10.5mm thick and weighs 46.66g. This is 1.5000oz Troy / 720 grains / 30 pennyweights or 2 shillingweights and 6 pennyweights, i.e. precisely one tenth of a mercantile pound of 7200 grains or one eighth of a Troy pound.The unevenness of the surface of the exposed lead of the present example is surely not the result of wear or corrosion, but of the careful removal of material to achieve an exact mass. The exact correspondence of weights is remarkable.Similar, but larger, objects found in Winchester and weighing 3304gr and 3124gr (214.1g and 202.4g respectively) were considered to be probably of the 11th century and to be for half a mercantile pound of 15oz Troy (Biddle 1990, 910-15 and 918, fig. 280, nos. 3192 and 3195). Another example, from South Creake (Norfolk Historic Environment Record number 44049), weighed 153