"When this name of Sterling came first in is uncertain, only we
are certain it was a denomination in use in the time of H. III.
or Ed. I. and after ages. But it was not in use at the time of
the compiling of {412} Doomsday, for if it were we should have
found it there where there is so great occasion of mention of
Firmes, Rents, and Payments. Hovended in _Rich. I fol. 377. b._
Nummus _a_ Numa, _que fuit le primer Roy que fesoit moneies en_
Rome. _Issint Sterlings, alias Esterlings, queux primes fesoient
le money de cest Standard en_ Engleterre."--_Sheriffs'
Accompts_, p. 5-9.

So much for the derivation of _Sterling_, which evidently applied
originally to the metal rather than to a coin. May I be allowed to
hazard a suggestion as to the origin of _peny_, its synonym? They were
each equivalent to the Denarius.

"_Denarius Angliæ, qui nominatur Sterlingus, rotundus sine
tonsura, ponderabit 32 grana in medio spicæ. Sterlingus et
Denarius sont tout un. Le Shilling consistoit de 12 sterlings.
Le substance de cest denier ou sterling peny al primes fuit
vicessima pars unicæ._"--_Indentures of the Mint_, Ed. I and VI.

May we not derive it from Denarius by means of either a typographical or
clerical error in the initial letter. This would at once give a new
name--the very thing they were in want of--and we may very easily
understand its being shortened into Penny.

G.
Milford, April 15.