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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EWC3, post: 3634608, member: 93416&quot;]A bit of both I suspect.&nbsp; I think this is the best paper to look at (only part open access):</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42667286?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42667286?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" rel="nofollow">https://www.jstor.org/stable/42667286?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Pennies varied from a low of 1.35g to a high of 1.45g on average between 1158 and 1279.</p><p><br /></p><p>The theoretical weight should be 1.46g (30 troy wheat grains, 22.5 troy barley grains)</p><p><br /></p><p>The high point - 1.45g - comes from looking at 1000 early Ed I pennies of London mint from the Colchester hoard – (for all mints the average of even that hoard was 1.43g).</p><p><br /></p><p>The variation over time seems to be because the mint was rather covertly applying additional charges.&nbsp; Theoretically it seem the policy was to strike 256 pennies to a troy pound, hang onto 16 of them as a kind of tax, and pay out 240 as a money pound.&nbsp; Thus 240 ought to weigh c. 350g (a tower or sterling pound).</p><p><br /></p><p>However, after 1279 the mint was actually striking 243 coins from c. 350g.&nbsp; Before then, sometimes it probably struck 242 to the tower pound, or perhaps even 246 to the tower pound.&nbsp; But it since it was a kind of stealth tax, we are left in the dark, guessing, most times.&nbsp; I suspect only big merchants had scales good enough to check the facts anyhow – so any challenge to mint practice would come from that quarter, in private.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hard to say what is going on with your single coin though.&nbsp; Maybe it is low just for some random batch reason, or due to a little bit of clipping, or just wear?</p><p><br /></p><p>Rob T[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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