Editing Pound (mass) (section)

==== Tower pound ====
[[File:The Pound.jpg|thumb|The tower pound displayed as the weight of a [[pound sterling]] of 240 early [[Penny (English coin)|silver pennies]] (original [[pennyweight]])]]
A tower pound is equal to 12 tower ounces and to 5,400 [[troy grains]], which equals around 350 grams.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ross |first=Lester A. |url=https://sha.org/assets/documents/Metrology.pdf |title=Archaeological Metrology: English, French, American, and Canadian Systems of Weights and Measures for North American Historical Archaeology |date=1983 |publisher=National Historic Parks and Sites Branch, Parks Canada, Environment Canada |isbn=978-0-660-11336-4 |pages=20 |language=en}}</ref> The tower pound is the historical weight standard that was used for England's coinage.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kampmann |first=Ursula |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVDIEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA56 |title=Drachm, Dirham, Thaler, Pound: Money and currencies in history from earliest times to the euro |date=2013-04-29 |publisher=Conzett Verlag |isbn=978-3-03760-029-0 |pages=56 |language=en}}</ref> Before the [[Norman Conquest|Norman conquest]] in 1066, the tower pound was known as the Saxon pound. During the reign of [[King Offa]] (757–96) of [[Mercia]], a Saxon pound of silver was used to set the original weight of a [[pound sterling]].<ref name="Zupko 1977 11"/> From one Saxon pound of silver (that is a tower pound) the king had 240 [[Penny (English coin)|silver pennies]] minted.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ctLECjLTakcC&pg=PA115 |title=The Encyclopædia Britannica: Payn-Polka |date=1911 |publisher=At the University Press |pages=115 |language=en}}</ref>{{efn|"Anglo-Saxon [[Offa of Mercia|King Offa]] is credited with introducing the system of money to central and southern England in the latter half of the eighth century, overseeing the minting of the earliest English silver pennies{{snd}}emblazoned with his name. In practice they varied considerably in weight and 240 of them seldom added up to a pound. There were at that time no larger denomination coins{{snd}} pounds and [[shilling]]s were merely useful units of account".<ref>{{cite web |title=A short history of the pound |publisher=BBC |first=Ed |last=Lowther |date=14 February 2014 |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26169070 |quote= |access-date=22 July 2021 |archive-date=21 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721233848/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26169070 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{snd}} Ed Lowther, BBC}} In the pound sterling monetary system, twelve pennies equaled a [[shilling]] and twenty shillings equaled a pound sterling.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Geva |first=Benjamin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4yHcBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 |title=The Payment Order of Antiquity and the Middle Ages: A Legal History |date=2011-11-01 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-84731-843-5 |pages=88 |language=en}}</ref>

The tower pound was referenced to a standard prototype found in the [[Tower of London]]. The tower system ran concurrently with the avoirdupois and troy systems until the reign of [[Henry VIII]], when a royal proclamation dated 1526 required that the troy pound be used for mint purposes instead of the tower pound.<ref>A proclamation of Henry VIII, 5 November 1526. Proclamation 112 in Paul L. Hughes and James F. Larkin, editors. ''Tudor Royal Proclamations''. Volume 1. New Haven: Yale University Press,1964.[http://www.sizes.com/units/pound_tower.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222154017/http://www.sizes.com/units/pound_tower.htm|date=22 February 2014}}</ref> No standards of the tower pound are known to have survived.<ref>R. D. Connor and A. D. C. Simpson.''Weights and Measures in Scotland. A European Perspective''.National Museums of Scotland and Tuckwell Press, 2004, page 116, quoting from H. W. Chisholm, Seventh Annual Report of the Warden for the Standards..for 1872-73 (London, 1873), quoting from 1864 House of Commons Paper.[http://www.sizes.com/units/pound_tower.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222154017/http://www.sizes.com/units/pound_tower.htm|date=22 February 2014}}</ref>

The tower pound was also called the '''moneyers' pound''' (referring to the Saxon [[moneyer]]s before the Norman conquest);<ref>{{cite web |title=Tower pound |url=https://sizes.com/units/pound_tower.htm |access-date=17 September 2016 |website=Sizes.com}}</ref> the '''easterling pound''', which may refer to traders of eastern Germany, or to traders on the shore of the eastern [[Baltic Sea|Baltic sea]], or dealers of Asiatic goods who settled at the [[Steelyard|London Steelyard wharf]];<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uQI_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP33 |title=Facsimile of First Volume of Ms. Archives of the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London A.D. 1345–1463. |date=1886}}</ref> and the '''Rochelle pound''' by French writers, because it was also in use at [[La Rochelle]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2oUBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA191 |title=The English manual of banking |year=1877 |access-date=17 September 2016}}</ref> An almost identical weight was employed by the Germans for weighing gold and silver.

The mercantile pound (1304) of 6750 troy grains, or 9600 Tower grains, derives from this pound, as 25 [[shilling]]-weights or 15 Tower ounces, for general commercial use. Multiple pounds based on the same ounce were quite common. In much of Europe, the apothecaries' and commercial pounds were different numbers of the same ounce.{{Citation needed|date=February 2013}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Weights used for gold |url=http://www.taxfreegold.co.uk/weights.html |access-date=14 January 2011 |publisher=Tax Free Gold}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A brief history of the pound |url=http://www.dozenalsociety.org.uk/history/poundhist.html |access-date=14 January 2011 |publisher=The Dozenal Society of Great Britain}}</ref>
{|
|-
|1 mercantile pound (15&nbsp;oz)
|= 
|align=right|9,600 Tower grains
|= 
|align=right|6,750 troy grains
|-
|1 Tower pound (12&nbsp;oz)
|= 
|align=right|7,680 Tower grains
|= 
|align=right|5,400 troy grains
|-
|1 Tower ounce (20 dwt)
|=
|align=right|640 Tower grains
|=
|align=right|450 troy grains
|-
|1 Tower pennyweight (dwt)
|=
|align=right|32 Tower grains
|=
|align=right|{{frac|22|1|2}} troy grains
|}