Your correspondent suggests (No. 24. p. 384.) an ingenious derivation
for the word _Sterling_; but one which perhaps he has been too ready to
adopt, inasmuch as it helped his other derivation of _peny_, from
_pecunia_ or _pecus_. I quote the following from _A short Treatise
touching Sheriff's Accompts_, by Sir Matthew Hale: London, 1683:
"Concerning the second, _viz._ the matter or species whereof the
current coin of this kingdom hath been made, it is gold or
silver, but not altogether pure, but with an allay of copper, at
least from the time of King H. I. and H. II., though possibly in
ancienter times the species whereof the coin was made might be
pure gold or silver; and this allay was that which gave the
denomination of Sterling to that coin, _viz._ Sterling Gold, or
Sterling Silver. Wherein there will be inquirable,
"1. Whence that denomination came?
"2. How ancient that denomination was?
"3. What was the allay that gave silver that denomination?
"For the former of these there are various conjectures, and
nothing of certainty.
"_Spelman_ supposeth it to take that denomination from the
Esterlings, who, as he supposeth, came over and reformed our
coin to that allay. Of this opinion was _Camden. A Germanis,
quos Angli_ Esterlings, _aborientali situ, vocarunt, facta est
appellatio; quos_ Johannes _Rex, ad argentum in suam puritatem
redigendam, primus evocavit; et ejus modi nummi_ Esterlingi, _in
antiquis scripturis semper reperiuntur_. Some suppose that it
might be taken up from the _Starre Judæorum_, who, being the
great brokers for money, accepted and allowed money of that
allay for current payment of their stars or obligations; others
from the impression of a starling, or an asterisk upon the coin.
_Pur ceo que le form d'un Stare, dont le diminutive est
Sterling, fuit impressit on stamp sur ceo. Auters pur ceo que le
primer de cest Standard fuit coyn en le Castle de Sterlin in_
Scotland _pur le Roy_ Edw. I. And possibly as the proper name of
the fourth part of a Peny was called a Farthing, ordinarily a
Ferling; so in truth the proper name of a Peny in those times
was called a Sterling, without any other reason of it than the
use of the times and arbitrary imposition, as other names
usually grow. For the old Act of 51 H. III., called _Compositio
Mensurarum_, tells us that _Denarius Anglice Sterlingus
dicitur_; and because this was the root of the measure,
especially of Silver Coin, therefore all our Coin of the same
allay was also called Sterling, as five Shillings Sterling, five
Pounds Sterling.
"When this name of Sterling came first in is uncertain, only we
are certain it was a denomination in use in the time of H. III.
or Ed. I. and after ages. But it was not in use at the time of
the compiling of {412} Doomsday, for if it were we should have
found it there where there is so great occasion of mention of
Firmes, Rents, and Payments. Hovended in _Rich. I fol. 377. b._
Nummus _a_ Numa, _que fuit le primer Roy que fesoit moneies en_
Rome. _Issint Sterlings, alias Esterlings, queux primes fesoient
le money de cest Standard en_ Engleterre."--_Sheriffs'
Accompts_, p. 5-9.
So much for the derivation of _Sterling_, which evidently applied
originally to the metal rather than to a coin. May I be allowed to
hazard a suggestion as to the origin of _peny_, its synonym? They were
each equivalent to the Denarius.
"_Denarius Angliæ, qui nominatur Sterlingus, rotundus sine
tonsura, ponderabit 32 grana in medio spicæ. Sterlingus et
Denarius sont tout un. Le Shilling consistoit de 12 sterlings.
Le substance de cest denier ou sterling peny al primes fuit
vicessima pars unicæ._"--_Indentures of the Mint_, Ed. I and VI.
May we not derive it from Denarius by means of either a typographical or
clerical error in the initial letter. This would at once give a new
name--the very thing they were in want of--and we may very easily
understand its being shortened into Penny.
G.
Milford, April 15.
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