IMG that trove is even lighter:
The Iron Age Irish, according to the Brehon Laws, valued a
milk cow in prime condition (e.g. had calved well twice before)
at an "ounce" of silver, perhaps 31 gr./Troy oz, divided into
24 "screpul" (implying 1.3 gm each, though the "screpul" was
not a coin). The Hiberno-Norse coins of Dublin, the earliest
Irish coins, were modeled on later Saxon coins of England,
from 20 to 24 grains (i.e. 1.3 to 1.55 gm) usually at a high
quality (v.high % silver, manufacture is mediocre).
The silver pennies of William the Conqueror were of this late Saxon measure too, substantially lighter than the denarius of the Empire than David mentions. After Commodus' debasement and 3 gm denarius of 186 the denarius was never the same again; its crummier replacment, the heavier Antoninianus, lost weight and silver portion even faster. Diocletian's Great coin Reform failed almost as fast as his price setting Edict in 301.
And if you like the later ounce averdupois of 28.3 gm, that twentyfourth is 1.2 gm; its twentieth is 1.4 gm.
Mark Leymaster
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