Pennyweight Pennyweight A pennyweight (abbreviated dwt, from denarius weight) is a unit of mass that is equal to 24 grains, of a troy ounce, of a troy pound, approximately 0.054857 avoirdupois ounce and exactly 1.55517384 grams. In the Middle Ages, a British penny's weight was literally, as well as monetarily, of an ounce and of a pound of sterling silver. At that time, the pound in use was the Tower pound, equal to 7,680 Tower grains (also known as wheat grains). The medieval English pennyweight was thus equal to 32 Tower grains. When Troy weights replaced Tower weights in 1527, the
Pennyweight the alternative drams and grains measurement has been used since a new set of scales was purchased by the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society in 1937. As of 2018, the world record for the heaviest gooseberry of 41 dwt 11 gr was held by Kelvin Archer of Cheshire. The most common abbreviation for pennyweight is "dwt"; "d", for the Roman "denarius", was the abbreviation for "penny" before Decimalization of the British monetary system. Alternate abbreviations are "pwt" and "PW". Although the abbreviations are the same, the pennyweight bears no relation to the weight of the American penny nail. That name