Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/417

 cut from a larger bracelet?, 48-1/2 hollow and open? plating of bronze ring? (banded), 422, 410 (ounces), 288 (injured).

Irish fluted ring money. * No precise locality, but presumably Irish.

With disks, 249, 806 (2 oz.), 595, 283, 169, 665, 139, 119. Dots, no lines, 32.
 * 106, *123 (worn), 30, 59, 90, 66, 59-1/2.

The weights of these rings show many points of agreement with those in the Irish Museum. Thus we get 28, 29-1/2, 30, and 32 grs. corresponding to 29, 31, and 32 grs. of the second group in the Irish Table. Again, 56 and 59-1/2 where we get 54, 56, 58, 59, 61 in the Irish, and 66 corresponding to 65, 65; 98 to 96 and 98; and 89 corresponding to 88 and 90; 119, 121, 122 and 123 to 121 and 124; 139 to 144, and 144 and 148 to 147 and 147; then 169 to 171 and 172. Then comes a break, and we get 215, 218, 218, 224 corresponding to 220, and 249 to 247, and 283 to 283 and 283; and 323 to 322, and 360 to 366. But the British Museum gives us in the higher weights three very important specimens: for 410 grs. is the ounce corresponding exactly to the old Norse öre of 410 grs., and the ring of 422 grs. looks like the later ounce rising towards the full weight of 432. The ring of 806 grs. is plainly 2 ounces of the standard of 410 (806 ÷ 2 = 403).

The occurrence of several specimens so constantly all of the same weight, as for instance those about 220 grs., points beyond doubt to the conclusion that when the rings were being made a given quantity of gold was weighed out for the purpose. The story of St Finnian proves that for any transaction in which rings were employed as money, the scales were employed.

There is a set of leaden weights in the Royal Irish Academy Collection, found at Island Bridge, Dublin, in 1869, when Ancient Irish and Scandinavian remains were found together. As they are more or less corroded, it is not advisable to lay much stress on their present weights.

grs. 1. Semicircular weight 1852 2. Animal's head       1550 3. Circular            1221 4.                      958 5.                       634 6. Oblong                539 7.                      459 8. Quadrangular          414 (oz.) 9.                      395 (oz.) 10.                     220