Coin Weights

In late December of 2022 Paul Withers received an e-mail from Dr Jörn Schuster, FSA MCIfA, a Consultant Archaeologist and Finds Specialist, asking for help on a coin-weight discovered during the excavations carried out for the extension of the Dorset Museum in Dorchester. This article tells the story of that weight. The shape of a coin-weight is important, sometimes revealing its origins. This recent find from Dorchester shows connections between weights made in France, the Netherlands and Britain, or made in one place and exported to the others.

This note presents a lead object, found at Ewell in Surry in 1995, that found its way into the David Rogers collection of lead weights. With the design of an Edward I groat and weight corresponding to twelve pennyweights, it was catalogued as such.Revisiting the object revealed that the surface had deteriorated (turned to dust) whilst in storage and the note presents a possible method to conserve what remains of the surface using Paraloid B-72. Closer inspection reveals two small bumps on the reverse and thus the piece is now considered to be a lead brooch of the same period when the Edward I groats were being gilded and converted into brooches.