Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/45

Rh they had no coined money. Instead of money, he says, they used pieces either of bronze or of iron, adjusted to a certain weight. There is some doubt, owing to the disagreement of the manuscripts, as to whether he calls these pieces of metal rings, or thin plates, or merely tallies or cuttings (taleæ); but the most approved reading is rings. A curious disquisition on this ring-money of the Celtic nations was published a few years ago by Sir William Betham. Specimens of this primitive currency, according to Sir William, have been found in great numbers in Ireland, not only of bronze, but also of gold and silver. Sometimes the form is that of a complete ring, sometimes that of a wire or bar, merely bent till the two extremities are brought near to each other. In some cases the extremities are armed with flattened knobs, in others they are rounded out into cup-like hollows. Sometimes several rings are joined together at the circumferences; other specimens consist of rings linked into one another. The most important peculiarity, how- ever, distinguishing these curious relics, and that which Sir William Betham conceives chiefly proves them to have really served the purposes of money, is, that, upon being weighed, by far the greater number of them appear to be exact multiples of a certain standard unit. The smallest of gold which he had seen, he says, weighed twelve grains, or half a pennyweight; and of others, one contained this quantity three times, another five, another ten, another sixteen, another twenty-two, another four hundred and eighty (a pound troy), and another five hundred and thirty-four. The case he affirms to be similar both with those of silver, and those of bronze. All, he says, with a very few exceptions, which may easily be accounted for on the supposition of partial waste or other injury, weigh each a certain number of half pennyweights. The smallest specimens even of the bronze ring-money are quite as accurately balanced as those of the more valuable metals; and among these bronze specimens, indeed, he states, that, after having weighed a great many, he has