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[462]. The passage has been mutilated by Editors, but this is the reading of the best MSS. Caesar thus tells us that they had a system of weights of their own. Secondly the evidence of the actual British Coins (cf. Evans, Coins of Ancient Britons) which are of a standard not Roman.
Now we have seen above that the Irish gold rings were weighed on a standard of almost 13·5 grs. Troy. Let us now see if the larger gold ornaments preserved in our Museums confirm or disprove the evidence of the rings. I shall first give the weights of those in the Royal Irish Academy[463]:
Crescent shaped ornaments: 1539, 434 (ounce of Brehon Laws?), 733, 1008, 255, 2013, 489, 552, 660, 1081, 98, 432 (ounce of Brehon Laws), 339, 400 (early ounce = Norse öre?), 187, 390 (old ounce?), 797 (2 ounces, 2 × 398½).
The following are not in Wilde’s Catalogue: 472, 505, 542, 540, 630, 647, 667, 687, 720, 722, 737, 1092, 4331.
Torques: 476, 1013, 1527, 3126, 3168, 4722, 5941, 6007, 10268.
Not in Wilde: 154, 342, 1946, 2715, 4172, 5207, 5275, 6012, 6881.