There is plenty of evidence to show that large payments in gold and silver were mostly made by weight, and very often in gold articles—torques, armlets, and bracelets—made to a certain weight.
In the Scald’s tale is the well-known passage:—
He to me a beag gave
On which six hundred was
Of beaten gold
Scored of sceatts
In scillings reckoned.
Whether the true meaning be six hundred sceatts or six hundred scillings, we have here a beag with its weight marked upon it.
The museums of Scandinavia and of Ireland—the two poles of German and Celtic culture—are full of these gold objects, and very frequently little coils of fine gold wire are wound round them to raise their weight to the required standard.
Gold and silver objects weighing so many mancuses.