English Coinage Standards?

[mmarotta]

Based on comments from deagle74 and BCNumismatics in the topic on Silver Tokens, I dug a bit into the topic of standards. 

Considering only the modern sterling from about 1740 until 1920 (when sterling coinage was abandoned), I compiled a chart of weights and I am having a hard time understanding what the intent was.  As I see it, the system was based on the penny of (what were the odds?) one pennyweight of 24 grains.  Sterling is .925 fine, but that was accepted as nominal, though not in international trade. 

I understand that four pennies were a groat and 12 were a shilling and so on, 240 to the pound.  It is not the pounds, but the ounces I having trouble with.


                  Weight (grams) Pence per Coin Shillings per coin   Coins/Oz
Penny                    0.4713         1                      0.08323424         71.42857
Groat                     1.8851         4                      0.33353151         17.82531
Six Pence               2.8276         6                      0.5                       11.89061
Shilling                   5.6552       12                      1                            5.945303
Florin                   11.3104       24                      2                             2.972652
Double Florin       22.6207       48                      4.                            1.486547
Half Crown          14.138         30                      2.5                          2.378121
Crown                 28.2759       60                      5                             1.189202



In that other topic, the link to the Token Corresponding Society brought this assertion:

These tokens are typically of fine silver, but are light weight according to the standards of the time; 5 shillings and 2 pence coins per ounce of fine silver.  But it was these standards that had prevented the mint from issuing coins, as they could not afford the silver at market prices and then issue coins ...

I can see 5 shillings per troy ounce sterling, but did two pence make that much difference? Production costs are always a matter of volume: strike one coin or a thousand, you still need two dies and at least one man. 

Note also, that there is a lot of rounding in those round numbers....  4.999 not 5; 30.03 not 30; and so on.


So, my question is: what was the standard to which English silver was to have been struck?  Was it the penny of 24 grains or the crown of 5 shillings?

[Conderluva]

Interesting.  Where did the info from the last column come from?

[mmarotta]

  Interesting.  Where did the info from the last column come from?

I calculated it, or rather Excel did.

I took the basic information from the SCWC and went from there.