Arcane Topic Warning: Part the Third

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

"The shilling was based on the solidus (originally a gold coin weighing about 4.5 grams) as was the old frech Sou (the "/" was orignally a long "s""

Only indirectly: Charlemagne ordained that the basis of Frankish coin would be one pound (Tours) of silver, subdivided into 20 solidi (sols) or 240 denarii (deniers); this Carolingian system was copied by Offa of Mercia. The late-Roman and Byzantine solidus was, as you say, a gold coin (and worth a heckuva lot more than 1 sol or shilling, despite being only 1/3 the size); how the misnaming occurred is a mystery.

A-S scilling or shilling in place of sol/solidus is of unknown origin; what we do know is that in A-S times it was the value of a sheep. There was no actual shilling coin in England until the Tudor era.

You are, of course correct. I was trying to be brief and over simplified. And before you get to it, I am fairly sure a florin of Florence (being gold) was worth a heck of a lot more than 2 shillings. And yes, a Roman solidus was a lot of money, it was after all the equivalent of a Roman soldier's annual pay. And as for the extreme diffence in time between when the shilling was recognized as a unit of commerce and when there was actually a coin of that value, that sort of reminds me of how accounts were still being run in guineas until (I think decimalization) despite no Guinea coins being minted since Victoria. I think she was the one who minted the first sovereigns (If I am in error please forgive me on the grounds that I am 1. forgetful, 2. American and 3. Thanks to this thread now have a head filled with the monetary coversions of Feudal Japan (I collect that too) which make those of the Frankish system simple.)