MEDIEVAL WEIGHT

Cast lead free-standing weight, circular in plan and conical in profile which still contains the iron rod that formed an attachment loop at the apex of the weight in order to suspend it. The iron shank is corroded and only now protrudes about 7 mm above the apex of the weight, and now measures about 14 mm wide and 9 mm thick, but it is no doubt thicker inside the lead weight. There is also a dimple at the base of the weight, that is 4 mm deep, but not evidence of the iron shank at this end.The weight weighs 494.85 g which equates to about 17.5 avoirdupois ounces or one and one sixth avoirdupois pounds, as one avoirdupois pound was 15 ounces. The weight is too heavy to have been used as a steelyard poise.One Roman pound or libra was 328.9 g so this weight would equate to one and a half Roman pounds, but the shape and size of this weight suggests that it is Medieval or later in date.Egan (1998) records a conical weight with a central hole that weighs 94 g, which was probably used as a quarter of an English troy pound, on page 322, no.1038, which is dated from the 15th century.Egan (2005) illustrates a conical free-standing weight with a central cylindrical hole which has had an iron