Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
A British mark is a unit of money equal to 13 shillings and 4 pence (old money); i.e. 2/3 of a pound; i.e. 160 pence. It is a "unit of accounting" — I don't think any 1-mark coins were ever minted.
If one assumes parity (i..e. that a pound of money equals 1 troy pound of sterling silver, and one penny equals 1 troy pennyweight of sterling silver) then a "mark" would be 8 troy ounces.
So far so good. Easy-peazy. I already knew all that.
(Nerds only please; this is VERY boring.)
But I like to check and double-check, and wanted to learn how the unit derived initially, so I Googled. (Never mind why I "care" about such things!
)
Google's response flabbergasted me!!
Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
First of all, the mark never "supplanted" the pound weight, except in Germany. The Brits were using pounds and pennies in Anglo-Saxon days, and used them up until decimalization. The French franc was originally tied to the Livre; Italian Lira is cognate to Livre; et cetera, et cetera. But I've come to expect disinformation from SOME Wikipedia pages, so let's move on.
My real problem is with the claim that "The Mark is traditionally a half pound weight." I see ZERO confirmation of that with Google, excepting LOTS and LOTS of pages which are quoting the above Wikipedia paragraph verbatim. (Here's one of the stupidest such.)
Wiki links to this book for its claim: the Danes used 1 mark to denote 100 pennies of money. But that's not 1/2 a pound; it's 5/12 of a pound.
Could it be that some idiotic Wikipedia editor learned that a mark was 8 ounces, was used to thinking only of 16-ounce pounds, called 8 ounces "half a pound" and Wikipedia got copied hither and yon??! Surely not! Can any top-notch Googler set me straight?
If one assumes parity (i..e. that a pound of money equals 1 troy pound of sterling silver, and one penny equals 1 troy pennyweight of sterling silver) then a "mark" would be 8 troy ounces.
So far so good. Easy-peazy. I already knew all that.
(Nerds only please; this is VERY boring.)
But I like to check and double-check, and wanted to learn how the unit derived initially, so I Googled. (Never mind why I "care" about such things!
)Google's response flabbergasted me!!
Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
Wiki's Mark_(unit) said:
First of all, the mark never "supplanted" the pound weight, except in Germany. The Brits were using pounds and pennies in Anglo-Saxon days, and used them up until decimalization. The French franc was originally tied to the Livre; Italian Lira is cognate to Livre; et cetera, et cetera. But I've come to expect disinformation from SOME Wikipedia pages, so let's move on.My real problem is with the claim that "The Mark is traditionally a half pound weight." I see ZERO confirmation of that with Google, excepting LOTS and LOTS of pages which are quoting the above Wikipedia paragraph verbatim. (Here's one of the stupidest such.)
Wiki's Mark_(currency) said:
Wiki links to this book for its claim: the Danes used 1 mark to denote 100 pennies of money. But that's not 1/2 a pound; it's 5/12 of a pound.
Could it be that some idiotic Wikipedia editor learned that a mark was 8 ounces, was used to thinking only of 16-ounce pounds, called 8 ounces "half a pound" and Wikipedia got copied hither and yon??! Surely not! Can any top-notch Googler set me straight?