Herculis Crossword

[twosearch]

Re 28 down answered as ora in back postings. Could someone let me know where this is defined as 4 shillings? The Onelook Online Plain Text English Dictionery and the Websters Revised Unabridged 1913 Edition gives the definition as 20 pence. The Infoplease Dictionery gives it as 2 shillings. Can someone clear up this for me? Pretty please?

[Quizmonster]

In The Laws of Edward the Elder, an ora is listed as worth 2� shillings and in The Domesday Book as 20d...ie denarii or old pennies. That information is provided in The Oxford English Dictionary.

[twosearch]

Thanks quizmonster but neither of those is the four shillings in the clue!!

You don't think that the compiler has translated 20d into 20p and thus four shillings??????

[Quizmonster]

I'm not familiar with the crossword, Twosearch, so it's impossible for me to be sure, but I suspect you are correct and that the setter has somehow got his/her maths adrift!

[shaneystar2]

I posted this answer earlier today...
Definitions of ora
A money of account among the Anglo-Saxons, valued, in the Domesday Book, at twenty pence sterling.
Twenty pence today is four shillings in old money...�sd
But I think the compiler has got his old and new money mixed up.Other sites value the ora at an eighth of a mark,16 pennies and twenty pennies.
All a bit ambiguous.
This is where I got it from

http://www.morewords.com/

[dot&dash]

hi, I found this -
" the value of money in Early Medieval Britain was quite a variable thing. In its simplest form Early English money was divided into pounds, shillings and pence. Unfortunately the subdivisions were not the same as our pre-decimal coinage. The pound was the Troy pound (approx. 11.5 modern ounces or 373g) divided into 240 pennies (making a Saxon penny about 1.55g). To make matters even more complicated, the shilling did not have a constant value, varying from 4-6 pence, not the more recent 12 pence."
- So I guess 16 pence was 4 shillings.
I found this info here
http://www.regia.org/costs.htm

[twosearch]

Thanks everybody - this is an interesting discussion and we obviously have some learned contributors.