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
Exchequer Standards inches. According to Secretary Adams, Adams goes on to say (paraphrased and simplified): Thus, the key to the whole measurement system of 1266 was the weight of the silver penny sterling. This penny was 1/240th of the Tower pound, which had been used at the London mint for centuries before the Norman conquest, and which continued as legal tender until 1527, when Henry VIII replaced it with the Troy pound. The Tower pound weighed 3/4 Troy ounce less than the Troy pound (15/16th of the Troy pound). Its penny, therefore weighed 22.5 Troy grains. There was also another pound used