Pound (mass) a legal unit for trade (it was abolished in the United Kingdom on 6 January 1879 by the Weights and Measures Act of 1878), but the troy ounce, of a troy pound, is still used for measurements of gems such as opals, and precious metals such as silver, platinum and particularly gold. The system called Tower weight was the more general name for King Offa's pound. This dates to 757 AD and was based on the silver penny. This in turn was struck over Arabic dirhams (2d). The pound was based on the weight of 120 Arabic silver dirhams, which
Trade during the Viking Age so there was no danger of them being rearranged or switched during the course of an exchange. Estimated exchange rates at the beginning of the 11th century in Iceland were: If the weight of a piece of jewelry was more than needed to complete a purchase, it was cut up into smaller bits until the correct weight needed for the transaction was reached. The term hack silver is used to describe these silver objects. Silver ingots were primarily used for large/high-value transactions. The largest found weights weigh more than 1 kilogram each. Precious metals were also used to display personal